{
  "source_file": "0930",
  "source_platform": "Medium",
  "author": "Benjamin Nweke",
  "title_listed": "Your LLM Can Return Perfect JSON and Still Be Wrong",
  "keywords": "",
  "domain": "大模型算法",
  "content_type": "深度技术解析",
  "is_paid_flag": "否",
  "url": "https://towardsdatascience.com/your-llm-can-return-perfect-json-and-still-be-wrong/",
  "publish_date": "2026-08-31",
  "corpus_stage": "",
  "notes": "",
  "id": "a40ef04fcf4b",
  "collected_at": "2026-10-02T07:34:47",
  "title": "Your LLM Can Return Perfect JSON and Still Be Wrong | Towards Data Science",
  "body_markdown": "![Revisit consent button](../images/body-df29beacd7496220cc94.svg)\nWe value your privacy\nWe use cookies to enhance your browsing experience, serve personalised ads or content, and analyse our traffic. By clicking \"Accept All\", you consent to our use of cookies.\nCustomise Reject All Accept All\nCustomise Consent Preferences ![](../images/body-2159bb67f3de8ad870eb.svg)\nWe use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.\nThe cookies that are categorised as \"Necessary\" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... Show more\nNecessaryAlways Active\nNecessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.\n  * Cookie\nBCTempID\n  * Duration\n10 minutes\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__cf_bm\n  * Duration\n1 hour\n  * Description\nThis cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management. \n\n\n  * Cookie\nAWSALBCORS\n  * Duration\n7 days\n  * Description\nAmazon Web Services set this cookie for load balancing.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n_cfuvid\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nCloudflare sets this cookie to track users across sessions to optimize user experience by maintaining session consistency and providing personalized services\n\n\n  * Cookie\nli_gc\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nLinkedin set this cookie for storing visitor's consent regarding using cookies for non-essential purposes.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__hssrc\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThis cookie is set by Hubspot whenever it changes the session cookie. The __hssrc cookie set to 1 indicates that the user has restarted the browser, and if the cookie does not exist, it is assumed to be a new session.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__hssc\n  * Duration\n1 hour\n  * Description\nHubSpot sets this cookie to keep track of sessions and to determine if HubSpot should increment the session number and timestamps in the __hstc cookie.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nwpEmojiSettingsSupports\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nWordPress sets this cookie when a user interacts with emojis on a WordPress site. It helps determine if the user's browser can display emojis properly.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nBCSessionID\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nBlueconic sets this cookie as a unique identifier for the BlueConic profile.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n_octo\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nlogged_in\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Secure-YEC\n  * Duration\npast\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to stores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__eoi\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nAWSALBTGCORS\n  * Duration\n7 days\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nlogin-status-p\n  * Duration\npast\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nAWSALBTG\n  * Duration\n7 days\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\ncsrf_token\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\ntoken_v2\n  * Duration\n1 day\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nD\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nPHPSESSID\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThis cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie stores and identifies a user's unique session ID to manage user sessions on the website. The cookie is a session cookie and will be deleted when all the browser windows are closed.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nVISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to store the user's cookie consent state for the current domain. \n\n\n  * Cookie\ncookietest\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThe cookietest cookie is typically used to determine whether the user's browser accepts cookies, essential for website functionality and user experience.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Host-airtable-session\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nThis cookie is used to enable us to integrate the services of Airtable.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Host-airtable-session.sig\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nThis cookie is used to enable us to integrate the services of Airtable.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nm\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nStripe sets this cookie for fraud prevention purposes. It identifies the device used to access the website, allowing the website to be formatted accordingly.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nBIGipServer*\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nMarketo sets this cookie to collect information about the user's online activity and build a profile about their interests to provide advertisements relevant to the user. \n\n\n  * Cookie\n__cfruid\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nCloudflare sets this cookie to identify trusted web traffic.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n_GRECAPTCHA\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nGoogle Recaptcha service sets this cookie to identify bots to protect the website against malicious spam attacks.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Secure-YNID\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nGoogle cookie used to protect user security and prevent fraud, especially during the login process.\n\n\n  * Cookie\ncookieyes-consent\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nCookieYes sets this cookie to remember users' consent preferences so that their preferences are respected on subsequent visits to this site. It does not collect or store any personal information about the site visitors.\n\n\nFunctional\nFunctional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.\n  * Cookie\nlidc\n  * Duration\n1 day\n  * Description\nLinkedIn sets the lidc cookie to facilitate data center selection.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nbrw\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nbrwConsent\n  * Duration\n5 minutes\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nWMF-Uniq\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nloom_anon_comment\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nloom_referral_video\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nVISITOR_INFO1_LIVE\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nA cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-connected-devices\n  * Duration\nNever Expires\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to store the user's video preferences using embedded YouTube videos.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY\n  * Duration\nNever Expires\n  * Description\nThe cookie ytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY is used by YouTube to store the last search result entry that was clicked by the user. This information is used to improve the user experience by providing more relevant search results in the future.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-device-id\n  * Duration\nNever Expires\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to store the user's video preferences using embedded YouTube videos.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-session-name\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThe yt-remote-session-name cookie is used by YouTube to store the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-fast-check-period\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThe yt-remote-fast-check-period cookie is used by YouTube to store the user's video player preferences for embedded YouTube videos.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-session-app\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThe yt-remote-session-app cookie is used by YouTube to store user preferences and information about the interface of the embedded YouTube video player.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-cast-available\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThe yt-remote-cast-available cookie is used to store the user's preferences regarding whether casting is available on their YouTube video player.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-cast-installed\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThe yt-remote-cast-installed cookie is used to store the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.\n\n\n  * Cookie\ncp_session\n  * Duration\n3 months\n  * Description\nCodepen sets this cookie for Help systems found in the website.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nloid\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nThis cookie is set by the Reddit. The cookie enables the sharing of content from the website onto the social media platform.\n\n\nAnalytics\nAnalytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.\n  * Cookie\n__hstc\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nHubspot set this main cookie for tracking visitors. It contains the domain, initial timestamp (first visit), last timestamp (last visit), current timestamp (this visit), and session number (increments for each subsequent session).\n\n\n  * Cookie\nhubspotutk\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nHubSpot sets this cookie to keep track of the visitors to the website. This cookie is passed to HubSpot on form submission and used when deduplicating contacts.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n_ga\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nGoogle Analytics sets this cookie to calculate visitor, session and campaign data and track site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognise unique visitors.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n_ga_*\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nGoogle Analytics sets this cookie to store and count page views.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Host-psifi.analyticsTrace\n  * Duration\n6 hours\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Host-psifi.analyticsTraceV2\n  * Duration\n6 hours\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n_gh_sess\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nGitHub sets this cookie for temporary application and framework state between pages like what step the user is on in a multiple step form.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nYSC\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nYSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.\n\n\n  * Cookie\najs_anonymous_id\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nThis cookie is set by Segment to count the number of people who visit a certain site by tracking if they have visited before.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nvuid\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nVimeo installs this cookie to collect tracking information by setting a unique ID to embed videos on the website. \n\n\nPerformance\nPerformance cookies are used to understand and analyse the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.\n  * Cookie\nAWSALB\n  * Duration\n7 days\n  * Description\nAWSALB is an application load balancer cookie set by Amazon Web Services to map the session to the target.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nacq\n  * Duration\npast\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nacq.sig\n  * Duration\npast\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nptc\n  * Duration\n2 years\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\nAdvertisement\nAdvertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customised advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyse the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.\n  * Cookie\nmuc_ads\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nTwitter sets this cookie to collect user behaviour and interaction data to optimize the website.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nguest_id_marketing\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nTwitter sets this cookie to identify and track the website visitor.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nguest_id_ads\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nTwitter sets this cookie to identify and track the website visitor.\n\n\n  * Cookie\npersonalization_id\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nTwitter sets this cookie to integrate and share features for social media and also store information about how the user uses the website, for tracking and targeting.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nguest_id\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nTwitter sets this cookie to identify and track the website visitor. It registers if a user is signed in to the Twitter platform and collects information about ad preferences.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nbcookie\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nLinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser IDs.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Secure-ROLLOUT_TOKEN\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to manage feature rollout and experimentation. It helps Google control which new features or interface changes are shown to users as part of testing and staged rollouts, ensuring consistent experience for a given user during an experiment.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt.innertube::nextId\n  * Duration\nNever Expires\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to register a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt.innertube::requests\n  * Duration\nNever Expires\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to register a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nsession_tracker\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThis cookie is set by the Reddit. This cookie is used to identify trusted web traffic. It also helps in adverstising on the website.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nedgebucket\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nReddit sets this cookie to save the information about a log-on Reddit user, for the purpose of advertisement recommendations and updating the content.\n\n\n  * Cookie\ndid\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nArbor sets this cookie to show targeted ads to site visitors.This cookie expires after 2 months or 1 year.\n\n\nUncategorised\nOther uncategorised cookies are those that are being analysed and have not been classified into a category as yet.\nNo cookies to display.\nReject All Save My Preferences Accept All\nToggle Search[](https://towardsdatascience.com/)Toggle Mobile Navigation\n[](https://towardsdatascience.com/)\nPublish AI, ML & data-science insights to a global community of data professionals.\nSign in[Submit an Article](https://write.insightmediagroup.io)\n[Latest](https://towardsdatascience.com/latest/)[Editor's Picks](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/editors-pick/)[Newsletter](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/the-variable/)[ShipAI](https://towardsdatascience.com/shipai/)\n* * *\n[Write For TDS](https://towardsdatascience.com/submissions/)\n[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/towards-data-science/)[X](https://x.com/TDataScience)Toggle Search\n[Large Language Models](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/large-language-models/)\n# Your LLM Can Return Perfect JSON and Still Be Wrong\nWhat I learned after thinking more carefully about Structured Outputs on messy, incomplete data\n[Benjamin Nweke](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/benjaminnweke/)\nAugust 31, 20268 min read\n![](../images/000.jpg)\nPhoto by Şahin Sezer Dinçer via [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/spiral-staircase-with-blue-glass-window-3676619/)\nThree weeks after I turned on [Structured Outputs](https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/structured-outputs) for a pipeline that parsed payment confirmation messages into transaction records, I noticed that our reconciliation job started flagging a small, steady stream of mismatches.\nThey were not crashes, and not malformed rows either. Just transactions where the amount and sender matched perfectly but the date was off. Something like 2 to 3% of a given week's volume, enough to notice, not enough to be obvious right away.\nAt first I assumed that it was a timezone bug. But it wasn't. \nWhen I pulled the raw source messages next to the extracted records, a pattern showed up: every mismatched transaction came from a message that never mentioned a date at all. \nSomething like \"Payment received from Chinedu, ₦45,000, ref TXN-82K91.\" No date anywhere in the text. And the model had filled `transaction_date` in anyway, almost always the date the extraction job ran, off by less than an hour.\nThe schema said `transaction_date: date`, required. The model couldn't return nothing. So it didn't.\nI'd been treating \"the JSON is valid\" as the finish line for this pipeline, and for weeks it looked like one. \nIt isn't. \nIt's the point where a quieter kind of failure becomes possible, one that never throws an error or fails a type check, and doesn't show up until something downstream depends on the value being real. \nMost of what gets written about Structured Outputs stops at \"it can't return broken JSON anymore,\" as if that settles the reliability question. It settles one version of it.\nLearn this step by step with the interactive [AI Engineer](https://roadmap.sh/ai-engineer) roadmap.\n## The trap of the perfect schema\nStructured Outputs solve a real problem. Before native schema enforcement, getting reliable JSON out of an LLM meant regex parsers, retry loops, and prompts that basically begged the model: \"ONLY output JSON, no markdown, no preamble.\" \nWith the modern OpenAI Python SDK and a Pydantic model, most of that category of pain just goes away:\npython\n\n```\nimport logging\nfrom datetime import date\nfrom pydantic import BaseModel\nfrom openai import OpenAI\n\nlogger = logging.getLogger(__name__)\nclient = OpenAI()\n\nclass Transaction(BaseModel):\n    sender: str\n    amount: float\n    transaction_id: str\n    transaction_date: date\n\ndocument = \"\"\"\nPayment received from Chinedu.\nAmount: ₦45,000\nReference: TXN-82K91\nDate: 11 August 2026\n\"\"\"\n\n# gpt-4o-mini kept merging the amount and reference into one field on\n# messages with unusual formatting, so this stays on the full model\n# despite the cost. Worth revisiting once mini catches up.\ncompletion = client.beta.chat.completions.parse(\n    model=\"gpt-4o\",\n    messages=[\n        {\"role\": \"system\", \"content\": \"Extract the transaction details.\"},\n        {\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": document},\n    ],\n    response_format=Transaction,\n)\n\ntxn = completion.choices[0].message.parsed\nlogger.info(\"parsed txn %s\", txn.transaction_id)\n```\n\nRun it against a clean message and it works exactly as advertised. Every key present, every type correct, no try/except needed just to catch a stray markdown fence around the JSON.\nThen someone forwards you a message like this one:\npython\n\n```\ndocument = \"\"\"\nPayment received from Chinedu.\nAmount: ₦45,000\nReference: TXN-82K91\n\"\"\"\n# No date in this one.\n```\n\nbut the schema doesn't care that the date isn't there. It's still marked required, so something has to fill that slot, and it's never going to be the schema that bends. \nThe model reaches for whatever gets it to a valid value instead: the current date, the training cutoff, a plausible-looking guess. \nWhat comes back type-checks perfectly. It's also completely made up, and there's nothing in the response itself that tells you which fields are which.\n## Designing schemas for uncertainty\nThe fix is a mental shift more than a code change. An empty field isn't an error in extraction, it's often just the truth. Making fields nullable takes the pressure off the model to invent something:\npython\n\n```\nclass Transaction(BaseModel):\n    sender: str | None\n    amount: float | None\n    transaction_id: str | None\n    transaction_date: date | None\n```\n\nNow if the date's missing, the model can just say so. This also brings a distinction that's easy to blur, which is extraction versus inference. \nExtraction is \"tell me exactly what's in the text.\" While inference is \"tell me what it implies.\" A message that says \"paid on Tuesday\" and a schema demanding an ISO date, that's inference, whether you meant to ask for it or not. \nSometimes inference is exactly what you want, but the decision should be yours, not something the model makes for you by default. A nullable field hands that decision back to your own code:\npython\n\n```\nif transaction.transaction_date is None:\n    request_missing_info(transaction_id=transaction.transaction_id)\n```\n\n## Evidence and provenance\nNullable fields fix the \"inventing values from nothing\" problem. They don't fix the other one, which is honestly worse: the model gives you a value, and you have no way to tell if it actually read that value off the page or pattern-matched its way there.\nWith a normal chat response you can at least watch it reason its way to an answer. Structured Outputs skip straight to the final form. So I started asking for a second field alongside every value, the exact chunk of source text that supposedly backs it up.\npython\n\n```\nfrom pydantic import Field\n\nclass Extracted(BaseModel):\n    \"\"\"Generic wrapper so I'm not writing a near-identical class per field type.\"\"\"\n    value: float | date | str | None\n    evidence: str | None = Field(description=\"exact quote backing this value, empty if not found\")\n\nclass Transaction(BaseModel):\n    sender: str | None\n    amount: Extracted\n    transaction_id: str | None\n    transaction_date: Extracted\n```\n\nThe generic `Extracted` wrapper is a shortcut, not a best practice. `value` is now a union type instead of a clean `float`, which costs some of the type safety the original schema had. \nThat trade is worth it once a schema has more than a couple of field types, writing `ExtractedFloat`, `ExtractedDate`, `ExtractedString` separately is just busywork at that point. For one or two fields, keep the specific classes, they're usually cleaner.\nThe pattern earns its keep two ways. Ordering `evidence` before `value` matters because keys generate in sequence, so the model has to write down what it's looking at before committing to an answer, a small forced show-your-work. \nAnd it gives a reviewer something concrete to check without re-reading the source. If `value` is filled in but `evidence` is empty, or contains text that isn't in the source anywhere, that mismatch is the hallucination showing up in the data itself.\nIt doesn't come free. On a batch of a few hundred transaction messages, adding evidence fields across the schema pushed output tokens up by roughly a third, and latency rose enough to matter at pipeline scale.\nNot worth it for a five-digit zip code. But for a financial figure someone's going to act on, it's definitely worth it.\n## The boundary between generation and validation\nBy this point the schema is carrying a lot: nullable types so it doesn't invent things, evidence fields so I can catch it when it does anyway. \nBut there's a whole category of wrongness neither of those touches, which is whether the value makes any sense as a fact about the world.\nThe schema guarantees `amount` is a float. It says nothing about whether that float is negative, or whether `transaction_date` is somehow three days from now. \nEarly on I tried fixing this in the prompt, with instructions like \"the amount must be greater than zero,\" which in hindsight was a strange thing to ask a language model to enforce. It's not a calculator. A validator does this exactly right, every single time, for free:\npython\n\n```\nfrom pydantic import model_validator, ValidationError\n\nclass Transaction(BaseModel):\n    sender: str | None\n    amount: float | None\n    transaction_id: str | None\n    transaction_date: date | None\n\n    @model_validator(mode=\"after\")\n    def check_sane_values(self) -> \"Transaction\":\n        # negative amounts have shown up exactly twice, both times because\n        # the source message described a refund, not a payment\n        if self.amount is not None and self.amount <= 0:\n            raise ValueError(f\"amount must be positive, got {self.amount}\")\n        if self.transaction_date is not None and self.transaction_date > date.today():\n            raise ValueError(f\"transaction_date {self.transaction_date} is in the future\")\n        return self\n```\n\nSo now the API is guaranteeing structure the moment it generates the response, and [Pydantic](https://docs.pydantic.dev/) is guaranteeing the data makes sense the moment it's parsed into the object, the same way every time, no LLM involved in that second check at all. \nWhen the validator throws, you've got options: kick the record to a human, or hand the exact error back to the model and let it try again. I went with the second one, capped hard at two retries:\npython\n\n```\nMAX_RETRIES = 2\n\ndef extract_with_retry(document: str) -> Transaction:\n    history = [\n        {\"role\": \"system\", \"content\": \"Extract the transaction details.\"},\n        {\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": document},\n    ]\n    for attempt in range(MAX_RETRIES + 1):\n        completion = client.beta.chat.completions.parse(\n            model=\"gpt-4o\", messages=history, response_format=Transaction\n        )\n        raw = completion.choices[0].message.content\n        try:\n            return Transaction.model_validate_json(raw)\n        except ValidationError as e:\n            if attempt == MAX_RETRIES:\n                raise  # give up, let the caller route this to a human\n            logger.warning(\"validation failed on attempt %d: %s\", attempt, e)\n            history += [\n                {\"role\": \"assistant\", \"content\": raw},\n                {\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": f\"That failed validation: {e}. Fix only the bad field.\"},\n            ]\n```\n\nThe `MAX_RETRIES` cap actually matters more than it looks. My first instinct was to let it keep trying, which is a mistake. Two failed attempts almost always means the source document is the actual problem, not the prompt, and a third automated pass just burns API calls on something a human clears in ten seconds.\nNone of this is OpenAI-specific either, even though every code block here is. Swap in [Anthropic's tool use](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/overview) or a self-hosted setup with [vLLM](https://docs.vllm.ai/en/latest/features/structured_outputs.html) and [Outlines](https://github.com/dottxt-ai/outlines) and the Pydantic model doesn't move an inch, it's just the API call around it that changes.\n## Rethinking the goal of extraction\nWhen I first got this working, my bar for success was embarrassingly low: did the model fill out the object without breaking my parser. \nLooking back, that bar rewards the wrong thing entirely, because a model that eagerly fills every field regardless of what's actually in front of it isn't reliable. It's just confident, which is a different and more dangerous thing.\nStructured Outputs are genuinely good at what they do. They just don't do the thing I originally thought they did. They guarantee shape, not truth, and once you stop worrying about brackets and quote escaping, the real question is still sitting there waiting: does every value in this object have an actual reason to exist?\nThat question was always the hard part. The schema just used to hide it from me.\n## Register Now to Continue Reading\n### Unlock Towards Data Science with a Free Account\nAll articles on Towards Data Science are available to registered users. Create a free account today to access this article and thousands more.\nRegister for freeSign in to your account\n* * *\n![](../images/body-4ad89a2fc5e69dde007d.jpeg)\nWritten By\n## [Benjamin Nweke](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/benjaminnweke/)\nBenjamin Nweke is a Computer Science graduate and technical writer exploring AI, machine learning, and data science. He writes about building reliable AI systems, model evaluation, agentic architectures, and the practical challenges that appear when machine learning moves beyond experiments. His work focuses on making technically complex ideas clear, useful, and grounded in real implementation.\n[See all from Benjamin Nweke](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/benjaminnweke/)\n[Data Engineering](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/data-engineering/)[Json](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/json/)[Pydantic](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/pydantic/)[Python](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/python/)[Structured Output](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/structured-output/)\nShare This Article\n  * [](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftowardsdatascience.com%2Fyour-llm-can-return-perfect-json-and-still-be-wrong%2F&title=Your%20LLM%20Can%20Return%20Perfect%20JSON%20and%20Still%20Be%20Wrong)\n  * [](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftowardsdatascience.com%2Fyour-llm-can-return-perfect-json-and-still-be-wrong%2F&title=Your%20LLM%20Can%20Return%20Perfect%20JSON%20and%20Still%20Be%20Wrong)\n  * [](https://x.com/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftowardsdatascience.com%2Fyour-llm-can-return-perfect-json-and-still-be-wrong%2F&text=Your%20LLM%20Can%20Return%20Perfect%20JSON%20and%20Still%20Be%20Wrong)\n\n\nTowards Data Science is a community publication. Submit your insights to reach our global audience and earn through the TDS Author Payment Program.\n[Write for TDS](https://towardsdatascience.com/submissions/)\n## Related Articles\n  * [![](../images/001.jpg)](https://towardsdatascience.com/a-new-method-to-detect-confabulations-hallucinated-by-large-language-models-19444475fc7e/)\n## [A New Method to Detect \"Confabulations\" Hallucinated by Large Language Models](https://towardsdatascience.com/a-new-method-to-detect-confabulations-hallucinated-by-large-language-models-19444475fc7e/)\n[Artificial Intelligence](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)\nBy calculating semantic entropy with a second LLM, we can better flag answers as unreliable due to lack of knowledge\n[Luciano Abriata](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/lucianosphere/)\nJune 25, 202410 min read\n  * [![](../images/002.jpeg)](https://towardsdatascience.com/a-quick-way-to-build-applications-in-python-51d5ef477d88/)\n## [A Quick Way to Build Applications in Python](https://towardsdatascience.com/a-quick-way-to-build-applications-in-python-51d5ef477d88/)\n[Artificial Intelligence](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)\nBuild MVPs with a few lines of code\n[Naser Tamimi](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/tamimi-naser/)\nFebruary 8, 20216 min read\n  * [![](../images/003.jpg)](https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-find-the-best-multilingual-embedding-model-for-your-rag-40325c308ebb/)\n## [How to Find the Best Multilingual Embedding Model for Your RAG](https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-find-the-best-multilingual-embedding-model-for-your-rag-40325c308ebb/)\n[Artificial Intelligence](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)\nOptimize the Embedding Space for Improving RAG\n[Iulia Brezeanu](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/brezeanu.iulia/)\nJanuary 27, 20248 min read\n  * [![](../images/004.png)](https://towardsdatascience.com/hands-on-attention-mechanism-for-time-series-classification-with-python/)\n## [Hands-On Attention Mechanism for Time Series Classification, with Python](https://towardsdatascience.com/hands-on-attention-mechanism-for-time-series-classification-with-python/)\n[Machine Learning](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/machine-learning/)\nThis is how to use the attention mechanism in a time series classification framework\n[Piero Paialunga](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/piero-paialunga/)\nMay 30, 20258 min read\n  * [![](../images/005.jpg)](https://towardsdatascience.com/python-module-for-easy-data-pre-processing-for-beginners-40f0f6b407a8/)\n## [Python Module for easy data pre-processing for beginners](https://towardsdatascience.com/python-module-for-easy-data-pre-processing-for-beginners-40f0f6b407a8/)\n[Machine Learning](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/machine-learning/)\nThere is a need to process these data quickly and create an initial model to better understand your dataset or the problem at hand.\n[Benjamin Lau](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/ben_lau93/)\nJanuary 31, 20194 min read\n  * [![](../images/006.png)](https://towardsdatascience.com/data-analytics-with-python-by-web-scraping-illustration-with-cia-world-factbook-abbdaa687a84/)\n## [Data Analytics with Python by Web scraping: Illustration with CIA World Factbook](https://towardsdatascience.com/data-analytics-with-python-by-web-scraping-illustration-with-cia-world-factbook-abbdaa687a84/)\n[Artificial Intelligence](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)\nIn this article, we show how to use Python libraries and HTML parsing to extract useful information from a website and build analytics.\n[Tirthajyoti Sarkar](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/tirthajyoti/)\nMarch 4, 20189 min read\n  * [![](../images/007.png)](https://towardsdatascience.com/time-series-are-not-that-different-for-llms-56435dc7d2b1/)\n## [Time Series Are Not That Different for LLMs](https://towardsdatascience.com/time-series-are-not-that-different-for-llms-56435dc7d2b1/)\n[Artificial Intelligence](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)\nHarnessing the power of LLMs for time series modeling\n[Henry Lai](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/a0987284901/)\nJuly 12, 20247 min read\n  * [![](../images/008.jpeg)](https://towardsdatascience.com/function-wrappers-in-python-5146f3ad0601/)\n## [Function Wrappers in Python](https://towardsdatascience.com/function-wrappers-in-python-5146f3ad0601/)\n[Programming](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/programming/)\nPutting a Wrapper Around a Function\n[Sadrach Pierre, Ph.D.](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/spierre91/)\nMay 5, 20205 min read\n  * [![](../images/009.jpg)](https://towardsdatascience.com/chinese-postman-in-python-8b1187a3e5a/)\n## [Chinese Postman in Python](https://towardsdatascience.com/chinese-postman-in-python-8b1187a3e5a/)\n[Programming](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/programming/)\nDetailed Implementation & Explanation, with special emphasis on unique approach to generate Odd Vertex Pairings using Recursion\n[Araz Sharma](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/arazsharma1103/)\nNovember 9, 20201 min read\n\n\n  * [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/c/TowardsDataScience)\n  * [X](https://x.com/TDataScience)\n  * [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/towards-data-science/)\n  * [Threads](https://www.threads.net/@towardsdatascience)\n  * [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/towardsdatascience.com)\n\n\n[](https://towardsdatascience.com/)\nYour home for data science and AI. The world's leading publication for data science, data analytics, data engineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence professionals.\nSubscribe to Our Newsletter[Write For TDS](https://towardsdatascience.com/submissions/)•[About](https://towardsdatascience.com/about-towards-data-science-d691af11cc2f/)•[Advertise](https://contact.towardsdatascience.com/advertise-with-towards-data-science)•[Privacy Policy](https://towardsdatascience.com/privacy-policy/)•[Terms of Use](https://towardsdatascience.com/website-terms-of-use/)\n© Insight Media Group, LLC 2026•[The New Stack](https://thenewstack.io)•[roadmap.sh](https://roadmap.sh)•[Creator Network](https://insightmediagroup.io/creator-network)\n####  Recommended Articles \nClose\n  * [ ![](https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/607686/image?etag=1782161464448&width=500&height=500) How Relevance Models Foreshadowed Transformers for NLP ](https://towardsdatascience.com/how-relevance-models-foreshadowed-transformers-for-nlp/ \"How Relevance Models Foreshadowed Transformers for NLP\")\n  * [ ![](https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/607639/image?etag=1781250125848&width=500&height=500) Javascript Fatigue: HTMX Is All You Need to Build ChatGPT — Part 1 ](https://towardsdatascience.com/javascript-fatigue-you-dont-need-js-to-build-chatgpt/ \"Javascript Fatigue: HTMX Is All You Need to Build ChatGPT — Part 1\")\n  * [ ![](https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/607930/image?etag=1782124566054&width=500&height=500) The Subset Sum Problem Solved in Linear Time for Dense Enough Inputs ](https://towardsdatascience.com/subset-sum-problem-solved-in-linear-time-for-dense-enough-inputs/ \"The Subset Sum Problem Solved in Linear Time for Dense Enough Inputs\")\n  * [ ![](https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/3660/image?etag=1780176246070&width=500&height=500) Does Your Company Have a Data Strategy? ](https://towardsdatascience.com/does-your-company-have-a-data-strategy-e8944dbec4ae/ \"Does Your Company Have a Data Strategy?\")\n\n\n",
  "metadata": {
    "title": "Your LLM Can Return Perfect JSON and Still Be Wrong | Towards Data Science",
    "description": "What I learned after thinking more carefully about Structured Outputs on messy, incomplete data",
    "keywords": null,
    "author": "Benjamin Nweke",
    "og:locale": "en_US",
    "og:type": "article",
    "og:title": "Your LLM Can Return Perfect JSON and Still Be Wrong",
    "og:description": "What I learned after thinking more carefully about Structured Outputs on messy, incomplete data",
    "og:url": "https://towardsdatascience.com/your-llm-can-return-perfect-json-and-still-be-wrong/",
    "og:site_name": "Towards Data Science",
    "og:image": "https://assets.insightmediagroup.io/media/1787701093191_a7jk3n.jpg",
    "og:image:width": "1920",
    "og:image:height": "1280",
    "og:image:type": "image/jpeg",
    "twitter:card": "summary_large_image",
    "twitter:site": "@TDataScience",
    "twitter:creator": "@TDataScience",
    "twitter:label1": "Written by",
    "twitter:data1": "Benjamin Nweke",
    "twitter:label2": "Est. reading time",
    "twitter:data2": "8 min read",
    "article:published_time": "2026-08-31T15:30:01.907Z",
    "article:modified_time": "2026-08-31T15:30:01.907Z",
    "article:author": "https://towardsdatascience.com/author/benjaminnweke/"
  },
  "paywall": {
    "listed_paid": false,
    "detected": false,
    "marker": "",
    "public_only": false,
    "policy": "付费/会员内容只保留页面公开可见部分，不绕过付费墙"
  },
  "crawl": {
    "success": true,
    "status_code": 202,
    "error": ""
  },
  "code_blocks": [
    {
      "language": "txt",
      "file": "attachments/a40ef04fcf4b/code/block_000.txt",
      "chars": 918
    },
    {
      "language": "txt",
      "file": "attachments/a40ef04fcf4b/code/block_001.txt",
      "chars": 110
    },
    {
      "language": "txt",
      "file": "attachments/a40ef04fcf4b/code/block_002.txt",
      "chars": 143
    },
    {
      "language": "txt",
      "file": "attachments/a40ef04fcf4b/code/block_003.txt",
      "chars": 109
    },
    {
      "language": "txt",
      "file": "attachments/a40ef04fcf4b/code/block_004.txt",
      "chars": 415
    },
    {
      "language": "txt",
      "file": "attachments/a40ef04fcf4b/code/block_005.txt",
      "chars": 753
    },
    {
      "language": "txt",
      "file": "attachments/a40ef04fcf4b/code/block_006.txt",
      "chars": 941
    }
  ],
  "images": [
    {
      "status": "http_404",
      "url": "https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/607686/image?etag=1782161464448&width=500&height=500",
      "src": "https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/607686/image?etag=1782161464448&width=500&height=500",
      "alt": "",
      "downloaded": false,
      "discovery": "saved_markdown",
      "retried_at": "2026-10-20T18:08:41Z"
    },
    {
      "status": "http_404",
      "url": "https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/607639/image?etag=1781250125848&width=500&height=500",
      "src": "https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/607639/image?etag=1781250125848&width=500&height=500",
      "alt": "",
      "downloaded": false,
      "discovery": "saved_markdown",
      "retried_at": "2026-10-20T18:08:41Z"
    },
    {
      "status": "http_404",
      "url": "https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/607930/image?etag=1782124566054&width=500&height=500",
      "src": "https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/607930/image?etag=1782124566054&width=500&height=500",
      "alt": "",
      "downloaded": false,
      "discovery": "saved_markdown",
      "retried_at": "2026-10-20T18:08:41Z"
    },
    {
      "status": "http_404",
      "url": "https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/3660/image?etag=1780176246070&width=500&height=500",
      "src": "https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/3660/image?etag=1780176246070&width=500&height=500",
      "alt": "",
      "downloaded": false,
      "discovery": "saved_markdown",
      "retried_at": "2026-10-20T18:08:41Z"
    }
  ],
  "audio": [],
  "videos": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/c/TowardsDataScience",
      "kind": "channel_reference",
      "status": "reference_only"
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/latest/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/editors-pick/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/the-variable/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/shipai/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/submissions/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/large-language-models/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/author/benjaminnweke/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/data-engineering/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/json/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/pydantic/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/python/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/structured-output/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/a-new-method-to-detect-confabulations-hallucinated-by-large-language-models-19444475fc7e/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/author/lucianosphere/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/a-quick-way-to-build-applications-in-python-51d5ef477d88/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/author/tamimi-naser/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-find-the-best-multilingual-embedding-model-for-your-rag-40325c308ebb/"
    },
    {
      "type": "internal",
      "href": "https://towardsdatascience.com/author/brezeanu.iulia/"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://write.insightmediagroup.io"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/towards-data-science/"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://x.com/TDataScience"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://www.pexels.com/photo/spiral-staircase-with-blue-glass-window-3676619/"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/structured-outputs"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://roadmap.sh/ai-engineer"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://docs.pydantic.dev/"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/overview"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://docs.vllm.ai/en/latest/features/structured_outputs.html"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://github.com/dottxt-ai/outlines"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?title=Your+LLM+Can+Return+Perfect+JSON+and+Still+Be+Wrong&u=https%3A%2F%2Ftowardsdatascience.com%2Fyour-llm-can-return-perfect-json-and-still-be-wrong%2F"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&title=Your+LLM+Can+Return+Perfect+JSON+and+Still+Be+Wrong&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftowardsdatascience.com%2Fyour-llm-can-return-perfect-json-and-still-be-wrong%2F"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://x.com/share?text=Your+LLM+Can+Return+Perfect+JSON+and+Still+Be+Wrong&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftowardsdatascience.com%2Fyour-llm-can-return-perfect-json-and-still-be-wrong%2F"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://www.youtube.com/c/TowardsDataScience"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://www.threads.net/@towardsdatascience"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://bsky.app/profile/towardsdatascience.com"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://thenewstack.io"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://roadmap.sh"
    },
    {
      "type": "external",
      "href": "https://insightmediagroup.io/creator-network"
    }
  ],
  "repair_version": 2,
  "repaired_at": "2026-10-20T17:33:19Z",
  "source_url": "https://towardsdatascience.com/your-llm-can-return-perfect-json-and-still-be-wrong/",
  "delivery_status": "unverified",
  "discovery_status": "http_403",
  "missing_reason": "源页面未重新核验:http_403；已按保留正文补采图片",
  "repair_error": "",
  "actual_video_files": [],
  "expected_saved_body_images": 4,
  "image_discovery": "saved_markdown",
  "source_body_markdown": "![Revisit consent button](https://cdn-cookieyes.com/assets/images/revisit.svg)\nWe value your privacy\nWe use cookies to enhance your browsing experience, serve personalised ads or content, and analyse our traffic. By clicking \"Accept All\", you consent to our use of cookies.\nCustomise Reject All Accept All\nCustomise Consent Preferences ![](https://cdn-cookieyes.com/assets/images/close.svg)\nWe use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.\nThe cookies that are categorised as \"Necessary\" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... Show more\nNecessaryAlways Active\nNecessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.\n  * Cookie\nBCTempID\n  * Duration\n10 minutes\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__cf_bm\n  * Duration\n1 hour\n  * Description\nThis cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management. \n\n\n  * Cookie\nAWSALBCORS\n  * Duration\n7 days\n  * Description\nAmazon Web Services set this cookie for load balancing.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n_cfuvid\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nCloudflare sets this cookie to track users across sessions to optimize user experience by maintaining session consistency and providing personalized services\n\n\n  * Cookie\nli_gc\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nLinkedin set this cookie for storing visitor's consent regarding using cookies for non-essential purposes.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__hssrc\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThis cookie is set by Hubspot whenever it changes the session cookie. The __hssrc cookie set to 1 indicates that the user has restarted the browser, and if the cookie does not exist, it is assumed to be a new session.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__hssc\n  * Duration\n1 hour\n  * Description\nHubSpot sets this cookie to keep track of sessions and to determine if HubSpot should increment the session number and timestamps in the __hstc cookie.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nwpEmojiSettingsSupports\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nWordPress sets this cookie when a user interacts with emojis on a WordPress site. It helps determine if the user's browser can display emojis properly.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nBCSessionID\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nBlueconic sets this cookie as a unique identifier for the BlueConic profile.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n_octo\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nlogged_in\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Secure-YEC\n  * Duration\npast\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to stores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__eoi\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nAWSALBTGCORS\n  * Duration\n7 days\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nlogin-status-p\n  * Duration\npast\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nAWSALBTG\n  * Duration\n7 days\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\ncsrf_token\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\ntoken_v2\n  * Duration\n1 day\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nD\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nPHPSESSID\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThis cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie stores and identifies a user's unique session ID to manage user sessions on the website. The cookie is a session cookie and will be deleted when all the browser windows are closed.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nVISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to store the user's cookie consent state for the current domain. \n\n\n  * Cookie\ncookietest\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThe cookietest cookie is typically used to determine whether the user's browser accepts cookies, essential for website functionality and user experience.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Host-airtable-session\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nThis cookie is used to enable us to integrate the services of Airtable.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Host-airtable-session.sig\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nThis cookie is used to enable us to integrate the services of Airtable.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nm\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nStripe sets this cookie for fraud prevention purposes. It identifies the device used to access the website, allowing the website to be formatted accordingly.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nBIGipServer*\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nMarketo sets this cookie to collect information about the user's online activity and build a profile about their interests to provide advertisements relevant to the user. \n\n\n  * Cookie\n__cfruid\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nCloudflare sets this cookie to identify trusted web traffic.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n_GRECAPTCHA\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nGoogle Recaptcha service sets this cookie to identify bots to protect the website against malicious spam attacks.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Secure-YNID\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nGoogle cookie used to protect user security and prevent fraud, especially during the login process.\n\n\n  * Cookie\ncookieyes-consent\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nCookieYes sets this cookie to remember users' consent preferences so that their preferences are respected on subsequent visits to this site. It does not collect or store any personal information about the site visitors.\n\n\nFunctional\nFunctional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.\n  * Cookie\nlidc\n  * Duration\n1 day\n  * Description\nLinkedIn sets the lidc cookie to facilitate data center selection.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nbrw\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nbrwConsent\n  * Duration\n5 minutes\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nWMF-Uniq\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nloom_anon_comment\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nloom_referral_video\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nVISITOR_INFO1_LIVE\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nA cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-connected-devices\n  * Duration\nNever Expires\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to store the user's video preferences using embedded YouTube videos.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY\n  * Duration\nNever Expires\n  * Description\nThe cookie ytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY is used by YouTube to store the last search result entry that was clicked by the user. This information is used to improve the user experience by providing more relevant search results in the future.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-device-id\n  * Duration\nNever Expires\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to store the user's video preferences using embedded YouTube videos.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-session-name\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThe yt-remote-session-name cookie is used by YouTube to store the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-fast-check-period\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThe yt-remote-fast-check-period cookie is used by YouTube to store the user's video player preferences for embedded YouTube videos.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-session-app\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThe yt-remote-session-app cookie is used by YouTube to store user preferences and information about the interface of the embedded YouTube video player.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-cast-available\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThe yt-remote-cast-available cookie is used to store the user's preferences regarding whether casting is available on their YouTube video player.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt-remote-cast-installed\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThe yt-remote-cast-installed cookie is used to store the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.\n\n\n  * Cookie\ncp_session\n  * Duration\n3 months\n  * Description\nCodepen sets this cookie for Help systems found in the website.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nloid\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nThis cookie is set by the Reddit. The cookie enables the sharing of content from the website onto the social media platform.\n\n\nAnalytics\nAnalytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.\n  * Cookie\n__hstc\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nHubspot set this main cookie for tracking visitors. It contains the domain, initial timestamp (first visit), last timestamp (last visit), current timestamp (this visit), and session number (increments for each subsequent session).\n\n\n  * Cookie\nhubspotutk\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nHubSpot sets this cookie to keep track of the visitors to the website. This cookie is passed to HubSpot on form submission and used when deduplicating contacts.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n_ga\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nGoogle Analytics sets this cookie to calculate visitor, session and campaign data and track site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognise unique visitors.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n_ga_*\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nGoogle Analytics sets this cookie to store and count page views.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Host-psifi.analyticsTrace\n  * Duration\n6 hours\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Host-psifi.analyticsTraceV2\n  * Duration\n6 hours\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n_gh_sess\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nGitHub sets this cookie for temporary application and framework state between pages like what step the user is on in a multiple step form.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nYSC\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nYSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.\n\n\n  * Cookie\najs_anonymous_id\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nThis cookie is set by Segment to count the number of people who visit a certain site by tracking if they have visited before.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nvuid\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nVimeo installs this cookie to collect tracking information by setting a unique ID to embed videos on the website. \n\n\nPerformance\nPerformance cookies are used to understand and analyse the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.\n  * Cookie\nAWSALB\n  * Duration\n7 days\n  * Description\nAWSALB is an application load balancer cookie set by Amazon Web Services to map the session to the target.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nacq\n  * Duration\npast\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nacq.sig\n  * Duration\npast\n  * Description\nDescription is currently not available.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nptc\n  * Duration\n2 years\n  * Description\nNo description available.\n\n\nAdvertisement\nAdvertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customised advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyse the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.\n  * Cookie\nmuc_ads\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nTwitter sets this cookie to collect user behaviour and interaction data to optimize the website.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nguest_id_marketing\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nTwitter sets this cookie to identify and track the website visitor.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nguest_id_ads\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nTwitter sets this cookie to identify and track the website visitor.\n\n\n  * Cookie\npersonalization_id\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nTwitter sets this cookie to integrate and share features for social media and also store information about how the user uses the website, for tracking and targeting.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nguest_id\n  * Duration\n1 year 1 month 4 days\n  * Description\nTwitter sets this cookie to identify and track the website visitor. It registers if a user is signed in to the Twitter platform and collects information about ad preferences.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nbcookie\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nLinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser IDs.\n\n\n  * Cookie\n__Secure-ROLLOUT_TOKEN\n  * Duration\n6 months\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to manage feature rollout and experimentation. It helps Google control which new features or interface changes are shown to users as part of testing and staged rollouts, ensuring consistent experience for a given user during an experiment.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt.innertube::nextId\n  * Duration\nNever Expires\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to register a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nyt.innertube::requests\n  * Duration\nNever Expires\n  * Description\nYouTube sets this cookie to register a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nsession_tracker\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nThis cookie is set by the Reddit. This cookie is used to identify trusted web traffic. It also helps in adverstising on the website.\n\n\n  * Cookie\nedgebucket\n  * Duration\nsession\n  * Description\nReddit sets this cookie to save the information about a log-on Reddit user, for the purpose of advertisement recommendations and updating the content.\n\n\n  * Cookie\ndid\n  * Duration\n1 year\n  * Description\nArbor sets this cookie to show targeted ads to site visitors.This cookie expires after 2 months or 1 year.\n\n\nUncategorised\nOther uncategorised cookies are those that are being analysed and have not been classified into a category as yet.\nNo cookies to display.\nReject All Save My Preferences Accept All\nToggle Search[](https://towardsdatascience.com/)Toggle Mobile Navigation\n[](https://towardsdatascience.com/)\nPublish AI, ML & data-science insights to a global community of data professionals.\nSign in[Submit an Article](https://write.insightmediagroup.io)\n[Latest](https://towardsdatascience.com/latest/)[Editor's Picks](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/editors-pick/)[Newsletter](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/the-variable/)[ShipAI](https://towardsdatascience.com/shipai/)\n* * *\n[Write For TDS](https://towardsdatascience.com/submissions/)\n[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/towards-data-science/)[X](https://x.com/TDataScience)Toggle Search\n[Large Language Models](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/large-language-models/)\n# Your LLM Can Return Perfect JSON and Still Be Wrong\nWhat I learned after thinking more carefully about Structured Outputs on messy, incomplete data\n[Benjamin Nweke](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/benjaminnweke/)\nAugust 31, 20268 min read\n![](https://assets.insightmediagroup.io/media/1787701093191_a7jk3n.jpg)\nPhoto by Şahin Sezer Dinçer via [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/spiral-staircase-with-blue-glass-window-3676619/)\nThree weeks after I turned on [Structured Outputs](https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/structured-outputs) for a pipeline that parsed payment confirmation messages into transaction records, I noticed that our reconciliation job started flagging a small, steady stream of mismatches.\nThey were not crashes, and not malformed rows either. Just transactions where the amount and sender matched perfectly but the date was off. Something like 2 to 3% of a given week's volume, enough to notice, not enough to be obvious right away.\nAt first I assumed that it was a timezone bug. But it wasn't. \nWhen I pulled the raw source messages next to the extracted records, a pattern showed up: every mismatched transaction came from a message that never mentioned a date at all. \nSomething like \"Payment received from Chinedu, ₦45,000, ref TXN-82K91.\" No date anywhere in the text. And the model had filled `transaction_date` in anyway, almost always the date the extraction job ran, off by less than an hour.\nThe schema said `transaction_date: date`, required. The model couldn't return nothing. So it didn't.\nI'd been treating \"the JSON is valid\" as the finish line for this pipeline, and for weeks it looked like one. \nIt isn't. \nIt's the point where a quieter kind of failure becomes possible, one that never throws an error or fails a type check, and doesn't show up until something downstream depends on the value being real. \nMost of what gets written about Structured Outputs stops at \"it can't return broken JSON anymore,\" as if that settles the reliability question. It settles one version of it.\nLearn this step by step with the interactive [AI Engineer](https://roadmap.sh/ai-engineer) roadmap.\n## The trap of the perfect schema\nStructured Outputs solve a real problem. Before native schema enforcement, getting reliable JSON out of an LLM meant regex parsers, retry loops, and prompts that basically begged the model: \"ONLY output JSON, no markdown, no preamble.\" \nWith the modern OpenAI Python SDK and a Pydantic model, most of that category of pain just goes away:\npython\n\n```\nimport logging\nfrom datetime import date\nfrom pydantic import BaseModel\nfrom openai import OpenAI\n\nlogger = logging.getLogger(__name__)\nclient = OpenAI()\n\nclass Transaction(BaseModel):\n    sender: str\n    amount: float\n    transaction_id: str\n    transaction_date: date\n\ndocument = \"\"\"\nPayment received from Chinedu.\nAmount: ₦45,000\nReference: TXN-82K91\nDate: 11 August 2026\n\"\"\"\n\n# gpt-4o-mini kept merging the amount and reference into one field on\n# messages with unusual formatting, so this stays on the full model\n# despite the cost. Worth revisiting once mini catches up.\ncompletion = client.beta.chat.completions.parse(\n    model=\"gpt-4o\",\n    messages=[\n        {\"role\": \"system\", \"content\": \"Extract the transaction details.\"},\n        {\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": document},\n    ],\n    response_format=Transaction,\n)\n\ntxn = completion.choices[0].message.parsed\nlogger.info(\"parsed txn %s\", txn.transaction_id)\n```\n\nRun it against a clean message and it works exactly as advertised. Every key present, every type correct, no try/except needed just to catch a stray markdown fence around the JSON.\nThen someone forwards you a message like this one:\npython\n\n```\ndocument = \"\"\"\nPayment received from Chinedu.\nAmount: ₦45,000\nReference: TXN-82K91\n\"\"\"\n# No date in this one.\n```\n\nbut the schema doesn't care that the date isn't there. It's still marked required, so something has to fill that slot, and it's never going to be the schema that bends. \nThe model reaches for whatever gets it to a valid value instead: the current date, the training cutoff, a plausible-looking guess. \nWhat comes back type-checks perfectly. It's also completely made up, and there's nothing in the response itself that tells you which fields are which.\n## Designing schemas for uncertainty\nThe fix is a mental shift more than a code change. An empty field isn't an error in extraction, it's often just the truth. Making fields nullable takes the pressure off the model to invent something:\npython\n\n```\nclass Transaction(BaseModel):\n    sender: str | None\n    amount: float | None\n    transaction_id: str | None\n    transaction_date: date | None\n```\n\nNow if the date's missing, the model can just say so. This also brings a distinction that's easy to blur, which is extraction versus inference. \nExtraction is \"tell me exactly what's in the text.\" While inference is \"tell me what it implies.\" A message that says \"paid on Tuesday\" and a schema demanding an ISO date, that's inference, whether you meant to ask for it or not. \nSometimes inference is exactly what you want, but the decision should be yours, not something the model makes for you by default. A nullable field hands that decision back to your own code:\npython\n\n```\nif transaction.transaction_date is None:\n    request_missing_info(transaction_id=transaction.transaction_id)\n```\n\n## Evidence and provenance\nNullable fields fix the \"inventing values from nothing\" problem. They don't fix the other one, which is honestly worse: the model gives you a value, and you have no way to tell if it actually read that value off the page or pattern-matched its way there.\nWith a normal chat response you can at least watch it reason its way to an answer. Structured Outputs skip straight to the final form. So I started asking for a second field alongside every value, the exact chunk of source text that supposedly backs it up.\npython\n\n```\nfrom pydantic import Field\n\nclass Extracted(BaseModel):\n    \"\"\"Generic wrapper so I'm not writing a near-identical class per field type.\"\"\"\n    value: float | date | str | None\n    evidence: str | None = Field(description=\"exact quote backing this value, empty if not found\")\n\nclass Transaction(BaseModel):\n    sender: str | None\n    amount: Extracted\n    transaction_id: str | None\n    transaction_date: Extracted\n```\n\nThe generic `Extracted` wrapper is a shortcut, not a best practice. `value` is now a union type instead of a clean `float`, which costs some of the type safety the original schema had. \nThat trade is worth it once a schema has more than a couple of field types, writing `ExtractedFloat`, `ExtractedDate`, `ExtractedString` separately is just busywork at that point. For one or two fields, keep the specific classes, they're usually cleaner.\nThe pattern earns its keep two ways. Ordering `evidence` before `value` matters because keys generate in sequence, so the model has to write down what it's looking at before committing to an answer, a small forced show-your-work. \nAnd it gives a reviewer something concrete to check without re-reading the source. If `value` is filled in but `evidence` is empty, or contains text that isn't in the source anywhere, that mismatch is the hallucination showing up in the data itself.\nIt doesn't come free. On a batch of a few hundred transaction messages, adding evidence fields across the schema pushed output tokens up by roughly a third, and latency rose enough to matter at pipeline scale.\nNot worth it for a five-digit zip code. But for a financial figure someone's going to act on, it's definitely worth it.\n## The boundary between generation and validation\nBy this point the schema is carrying a lot: nullable types so it doesn't invent things, evidence fields so I can catch it when it does anyway. \nBut there's a whole category of wrongness neither of those touches, which is whether the value makes any sense as a fact about the world.\nThe schema guarantees `amount` is a float. It says nothing about whether that float is negative, or whether `transaction_date` is somehow three days from now. \nEarly on I tried fixing this in the prompt, with instructions like \"the amount must be greater than zero,\" which in hindsight was a strange thing to ask a language model to enforce. It's not a calculator. A validator does this exactly right, every single time, for free:\npython\n\n```\nfrom pydantic import model_validator, ValidationError\n\nclass Transaction(BaseModel):\n    sender: str | None\n    amount: float | None\n    transaction_id: str | None\n    transaction_date: date | None\n\n    @model_validator(mode=\"after\")\n    def check_sane_values(self) -> \"Transaction\":\n        # negative amounts have shown up exactly twice, both times because\n        # the source message described a refund, not a payment\n        if self.amount is not None and self.amount <= 0:\n            raise ValueError(f\"amount must be positive, got {self.amount}\")\n        if self.transaction_date is not None and self.transaction_date > date.today():\n            raise ValueError(f\"transaction_date {self.transaction_date} is in the future\")\n        return self\n```\n\nSo now the API is guaranteeing structure the moment it generates the response, and [Pydantic](https://docs.pydantic.dev/) is guaranteeing the data makes sense the moment it's parsed into the object, the same way every time, no LLM involved in that second check at all. \nWhen the validator throws, you've got options: kick the record to a human, or hand the exact error back to the model and let it try again. I went with the second one, capped hard at two retries:\npython\n\n```\nMAX_RETRIES = 2\n\ndef extract_with_retry(document: str) -> Transaction:\n    history = [\n        {\"role\": \"system\", \"content\": \"Extract the transaction details.\"},\n        {\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": document},\n    ]\n    for attempt in range(MAX_RETRIES + 1):\n        completion = client.beta.chat.completions.parse(\n            model=\"gpt-4o\", messages=history, response_format=Transaction\n        )\n        raw = completion.choices[0].message.content\n        try:\n            return Transaction.model_validate_json(raw)\n        except ValidationError as e:\n            if attempt == MAX_RETRIES:\n                raise  # give up, let the caller route this to a human\n            logger.warning(\"validation failed on attempt %d: %s\", attempt, e)\n            history += [\n                {\"role\": \"assistant\", \"content\": raw},\n                {\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": f\"That failed validation: {e}. Fix only the bad field.\"},\n            ]\n```\n\nThe `MAX_RETRIES` cap actually matters more than it looks. My first instinct was to let it keep trying, which is a mistake. Two failed attempts almost always means the source document is the actual problem, not the prompt, and a third automated pass just burns API calls on something a human clears in ten seconds.\nNone of this is OpenAI-specific either, even though every code block here is. Swap in [Anthropic's tool use](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/overview) or a self-hosted setup with [vLLM](https://docs.vllm.ai/en/latest/features/structured_outputs.html) and [Outlines](https://github.com/dottxt-ai/outlines) and the Pydantic model doesn't move an inch, it's just the API call around it that changes.\n## Rethinking the goal of extraction\nWhen I first got this working, my bar for success was embarrassingly low: did the model fill out the object without breaking my parser. \nLooking back, that bar rewards the wrong thing entirely, because a model that eagerly fills every field regardless of what's actually in front of it isn't reliable. It's just confident, which is a different and more dangerous thing.\nStructured Outputs are genuinely good at what they do. They just don't do the thing I originally thought they did. They guarantee shape, not truth, and once you stop worrying about brackets and quote escaping, the real question is still sitting there waiting: does every value in this object have an actual reason to exist?\nThat question was always the hard part. The schema just used to hide it from me.\n## Register Now to Continue Reading\n### Unlock Towards Data Science with a Free Account\nAll articles on Towards Data Science are available to registered users. Create a free account today to access this article and thousands more.\nRegister for freeSign in to your account\n* * *\n![](https://assets.insightmediagroup.io/media/1787657271062_x78p7k.jpeg)\nWritten By\n## [Benjamin Nweke](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/benjaminnweke/)\nBenjamin Nweke is a Computer Science graduate and technical writer exploring AI, machine learning, and data science. He writes about building reliable AI systems, model evaluation, agentic architectures, and the practical challenges that appear when machine learning moves beyond experiments. His work focuses on making technically complex ideas clear, useful, and grounded in real implementation.\n[See all from Benjamin Nweke](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/benjaminnweke/)\n[Data Engineering](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/data-engineering/)[Json](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/json/)[Pydantic](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/pydantic/)[Python](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/python/)[Structured Output](https://towardsdatascience.com/tag/structured-output/)\nShare This Article\n  * [](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftowardsdatascience.com%2Fyour-llm-can-return-perfect-json-and-still-be-wrong%2F&title=Your%20LLM%20Can%20Return%20Perfect%20JSON%20and%20Still%20Be%20Wrong)\n  * [](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftowardsdatascience.com%2Fyour-llm-can-return-perfect-json-and-still-be-wrong%2F&title=Your%20LLM%20Can%20Return%20Perfect%20JSON%20and%20Still%20Be%20Wrong)\n  * [](https://x.com/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftowardsdatascience.com%2Fyour-llm-can-return-perfect-json-and-still-be-wrong%2F&text=Your%20LLM%20Can%20Return%20Perfect%20JSON%20and%20Still%20Be%20Wrong)\n\n\nTowards Data Science is a community publication. Submit your insights to reach our global audience and earn through the TDS Author Payment Program.\n[Write for TDS](https://towardsdatascience.com/submissions/)\n## Related Articles\n  * [![](https://assets.insightmediagroup.io/media/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/0ZvEXS3eIOUJh0WHb-scaled.jpg)](https://towardsdatascience.com/a-new-method-to-detect-confabulations-hallucinated-by-large-language-models-19444475fc7e/)\n## [A New Method to Detect \"Confabulations\" Hallucinated by Large Language Models](https://towardsdatascience.com/a-new-method-to-detect-confabulations-hallucinated-by-large-language-models-19444475fc7e/)\n[Artificial Intelligence](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)\nBy calculating semantic entropy with a second LLM, we can better flag answers as unreliable due to lack of knowledge\n[Luciano Abriata](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/lucianosphere/)\nJune 25, 202410 min read\n  * [![](https://assets.insightmediagroup.io/media/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/15lLGYJXaxAKqdevef94-QQ-scaled.jpeg)](https://towardsdatascience.com/a-quick-way-to-build-applications-in-python-51d5ef477d88/)\n## [A Quick Way to Build Applications in Python](https://towardsdatascience.com/a-quick-way-to-build-applications-in-python-51d5ef477d88/)\n[Artificial Intelligence](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)\nBuild MVPs with a few lines of code\n[Naser Tamimi](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/tamimi-naser/)\nFebruary 8, 20216 min read\n  * [![](https://assets.insightmediagroup.io/media/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/0Ln4p2tHZSghTlKH7.jpg)](https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-find-the-best-multilingual-embedding-model-for-your-rag-40325c308ebb/)\n## [How to Find the Best Multilingual Embedding Model for Your RAG](https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-find-the-best-multilingual-embedding-model-for-your-rag-40325c308ebb/)\n[Artificial Intelligence](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)\nOptimize the Embedding Space for Improving RAG\n[Iulia Brezeanu](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/brezeanu.iulia/)\nJanuary 27, 20248 min read\n  * [![](https://assets.insightmediagroup.io/media/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/article_title.png)](https://towardsdatascience.com/hands-on-attention-mechanism-for-time-series-classification-with-python/)\n## [Hands-On Attention Mechanism for Time Series Classification, with Python](https://towardsdatascience.com/hands-on-attention-mechanism-for-time-series-classification-with-python/)\n[Machine Learning](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/machine-learning/)\nThis is how to use the attention mechanism in a time series classification framework\n[Piero Paialunga](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/piero-paialunga/)\nMay 30, 20258 min read\n  * [![](https://assets.insightmediagroup.io/media/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/0mQc7zT2rFscfTHMc-scaled.jpg)](https://towardsdatascience.com/python-module-for-easy-data-pre-processing-for-beginners-40f0f6b407a8/)\n## [Python Module for easy data pre-processing for beginners](https://towardsdatascience.com/python-module-for-easy-data-pre-processing-for-beginners-40f0f6b407a8/)\n[Machine Learning](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/machine-learning/)\nThere is a need to process these data quickly and create an initial model to better understand your dataset or the problem at hand.\n[Benjamin Lau](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/ben_lau93/)\nJanuary 31, 20194 min read\n  * [![](https://assets.insightmediagroup.io/media/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1X2QkNgg-vR3NRnGDquRm9w.png)](https://towardsdatascience.com/data-analytics-with-python-by-web-scraping-illustration-with-cia-world-factbook-abbdaa687a84/)\n## [Data Analytics with Python by Web scraping: Illustration with CIA World Factbook](https://towardsdatascience.com/data-analytics-with-python-by-web-scraping-illustration-with-cia-world-factbook-abbdaa687a84/)\n[Artificial Intelligence](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)\nIn this article, we show how to use Python libraries and HTML parsing to extract useful information from a website and build analytics.\n[Tirthajyoti Sarkar](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/tirthajyoti/)\nMarch 4, 20189 min read\n  * [![](https://assets.insightmediagroup.io/media/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1M__USG5J2oxGhJGf22mZrA.png)](https://towardsdatascience.com/time-series-are-not-that-different-for-llms-56435dc7d2b1/)\n## [Time Series Are Not That Different for LLMs](https://towardsdatascience.com/time-series-are-not-that-different-for-llms-56435dc7d2b1/)\n[Artificial Intelligence](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)\nHarnessing the power of LLMs for time series modeling\n[Henry Lai](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/a0987284901/)\nJuly 12, 20247 min read\n  * [![](https://assets.insightmediagroup.io/media/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/1fEfsVE1GdeAetGi5BLltdw.jpeg)](https://towardsdatascience.com/function-wrappers-in-python-5146f3ad0601/)\n## [Function Wrappers in Python](https://towardsdatascience.com/function-wrappers-in-python-5146f3ad0601/)\n[Programming](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/programming/)\nPutting a Wrapper Around a Function\n[Sadrach Pierre, Ph.D.](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/spierre91/)\nMay 5, 20205 min read\n  * [![](https://assets.insightmediagroup.io/media/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/0f_F4MbDTWYNyqkWt-scaled.jpg)](https://towardsdatascience.com/chinese-postman-in-python-8b1187a3e5a/)\n## [Chinese Postman in Python](https://towardsdatascience.com/chinese-postman-in-python-8b1187a3e5a/)\n[Programming](https://towardsdatascience.com/category/programming/)\nDetailed Implementation & Explanation, with special emphasis on unique approach to generate Odd Vertex Pairings using Recursion\n[Araz Sharma](https://towardsdatascience.com/author/arazsharma1103/)\nNovember 9, 20201 min read\n\n\n  * [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/c/TowardsDataScience)\n  * [X](https://x.com/TDataScience)\n  * [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/towards-data-science/)\n  * [Threads](https://www.threads.net/@towardsdatascience)\n  * [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/towardsdatascience.com)\n\n\n[](https://towardsdatascience.com/)\nYour home for data science and AI. The world's leading publication for data science, data analytics, data engineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence professionals.\nSubscribe to Our Newsletter[Write For TDS](https://towardsdatascience.com/submissions/)•[About](https://towardsdatascience.com/about-towards-data-science-d691af11cc2f/)•[Advertise](https://contact.towardsdatascience.com/advertise-with-towards-data-science)•[Privacy Policy](https://towardsdatascience.com/privacy-policy/)•[Terms of Use](https://towardsdatascience.com/website-terms-of-use/)\n© Insight Media Group, LLC 2026•[The New Stack](https://thenewstack.io)•[roadmap.sh](https://roadmap.sh)•[Creator Network](https://insightmediagroup.io/creator-network)\n####  Recommended Articles \nClose\n  * [ ![](https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/607686/image?etag=1782161464448&width=500&height=500) How Relevance Models Foreshadowed Transformers for NLP ](https://towardsdatascience.com/how-relevance-models-foreshadowed-transformers-for-nlp/ \"How Relevance Models Foreshadowed Transformers for NLP\")\n  * [ ![](https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/607639/image?etag=1781250125848&width=500&height=500) Javascript Fatigue: HTMX Is All You Need to Build ChatGPT — Part 1 ](https://towardsdatascience.com/javascript-fatigue-you-dont-need-js-to-build-chatgpt/ \"Javascript Fatigue: HTMX Is All You Need to Build ChatGPT — Part 1\")\n  * [ ![](https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/607930/image?etag=1782124566054&width=500&height=500) The Subset Sum Problem Solved in Linear Time for Dense Enough Inputs ](https://towardsdatascience.com/subset-sum-problem-solved-in-linear-time-for-dense-enough-inputs/ \"The Subset Sum Problem Solved in Linear Time for Dense Enough Inputs\")\n  * [ ![](https://h030.towardsdatascience.com/rest/v2/contentStores/d7d3a4ab-7caf-4383-bbd2-fbf7fb4f1787/items/3660/image?etag=1780176246070&width=500&height=500) Does Your Company Have a Data Strategy? ](https://towardsdatascience.com/does-your-company-have-a-data-strategy-e8944dbec4ae/ \"Does Your Company Have a Data Strategy?\")\n\n\n",
  "body_base_path": "attachments/a40ef04fcf4b/pages/",
  "body_markdown_path": "attachments/a40ef04fcf4b/pages/archived-body.md",
  "local_html": "attachments/a40ef04fcf4b/pages/archived-body.html",
  "body_source": "prior_capture"
}