Structured Output Expectations at the API Boundary
Understand how to create and enforce strict JSON output contracts at the API boundary to ensure LLM responses are parseable and schema-valid. Learn to detect and handle common failure modes that disrupt automation, and apply validation techniques to maintain reliable workflow routing and error handling in support triage systems.
A support triage workflow can fail without any HTTP error when the model returns something a human can read but a machine cannot safely route. For example, the output starts with valid JSON, then adds a sentence like I hope this helps, or it sets priority to High, because the customer sounds upset instead of an allowed enum like high.
A parser rejects the first case because the response is no longer pure JSON text, and a ...