Question Answering

Extract precise answers from a given context using extractive question answering models. The model identifies the span of text in the context that best answers the question.

See it in action

Try the Knowledge Base block for a working demo of these APIs.

answerQuestion()

Answer a question given a context:

import { answerQuestion } from '@localmode/core';
import { transformers } from '@localmode/transformers';

const model = transformers.questionAnswering('Xenova/distilbert-base-cased-distilled-squad');

const { answer, score, start, end } = await answerQuestion({
  model,
  question: 'What is the capital of France?',
  context: 'France is a country in Europe. The capital of France is Paris. It is known for the Eiffel Tower.',
});

console.log(answer); // 'Paris'
console.log(score);  // 0.98
console.log(start);  // 51
console.log(end);    // 56

const controller = new AbortController();

setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), 5000);

const { answer } = await answerQuestion({
  model,
  question: 'What is the capital of France?',
  context: 'The capital of France is Paris.',
  abortSignal: controller.signal,
});

AnswerQuestionOptions

Prop

Type

AnswerQuestionResult

Prop

Type

answerQuestionMany()

Answer multiple questions:

import { answerQuestionMany } from '@localmode/core';

const { answers } = await answerQuestionMany({
  model,
  questions: [
    { question: 'What is the capital?', context: 'The capital of France is Paris.' },
    { question: 'What is it known for?', context: 'Paris is known for the Eiffel Tower.' },
  ],
});

answers.forEach((answerSet) => {
  answerSet.forEach((a) => console.log(`${a.answer} (${a.score.toFixed(2)})`));
});

Custom Provider

Implement the QuestionAnsweringModel interface:

import type {
  QuestionAnsweringModel,
  DoAnswerQuestionOptions,
  DoAnswerQuestionResult,
} from '@localmode/core';

class MyQAModel implements QuestionAnsweringModel {
  readonly modelId = 'custom:my-qa';
  readonly provider = 'custom';

  async doAnswer(options: DoAnswerQuestionOptions): Promise<DoAnswerQuestionResult> {
    const { questions } = options;

    // Your QA logic here
    const answers = questions.map(({ question, context }) => [
      { answer: 'example', score: 0.9, start: 0, end: 7 },
    ]);

    return {
      answers,
      usage: { inputTokens: 0, durationMs: 0 },
    };
  }
}