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Dspy Advanced Module Composition

omidzamani/dspy-advanced-module-composition

Use for composing DSPy modules with Ensemble, MultiChainComparison, ensemble voting, sequential pipelines, and multi-program workflows.

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Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository
npx skills add https://github.com/OmidZamani/dspy-skills --skill dspy-advanced-module-composition

What comes with it

615 bytes besides the instruction
example.py

The instruction itself

15 sections, as written by the author

DSPy Advanced Module Composition

Goal

Compose complex DSPy programs using the Ensemble optimizer, MultiChainComparison for reasoning synthesis, and sequential module patterns.

When to Use

  • Need consensus from multiple approaches
  • Comparing different reasoning strategies
  • Building robust pipelines with fallbacks
  • Complex multi-step workflows with branching
  • Ensemble methods for improved accuracy
  • Design modules: dspy-custom-module-design
  • Define signatures: dspy-signature-designer
  • Evaluate performance: dspy-evaluation-suite

Inputs

| Input | Type | Description |

|-------|------|-------------|

| modules | list[dspy.Module] | Modules to compose |

| composition_type | str | "ensemble", "sequential", "comparison" |

Outputs

| Output | Type | Description |

|--------|------|-------------|

| composed_program | dspy.Module | Composed multi-module program |

Workflow

Phase 1: Ensemble Voting

Combine multiple programs using the Ensemble optimizer:

import dspy
from dspy.teleprompt import Ensemble

dspy.configure(lm=dspy.LM("openai/gpt-4o-mini"))

# Define a signature for the task
class BasicQA(dspy.Signature):
    """Answer questions with short factoid answers."""
    question = dspy.InputField()
    answer = dspy.OutputField()

# Create multiple program instances (should be optimized/compiled programs)
# For simple demonstration, we'll use different predictors
program1 = dspy.Predict(BasicQA)
program2 = dspy.ChainOfThought(BasicQA)
program3 = dspy.Predict(BasicQA)

# Ensemble is an optimizer that compiles programs together
ensemble = Ensemble(reduce_fn=dspy.majority)
ensembled_program = ensemble.compile([program1, program2, program3])

# Use the ensembled program
result = ensembled_program(question="What is 2 + 2?")
print(result.answer)  # Voted answer

Phase 2: MultiChainComparison

Compare multiple reasoning attempts:

import dspy

class BasicQA(dspy.Signature):
    """Answer questions with short factoid answers."""
    question = dspy.InputField()
    answer = dspy.OutputField(desc="often between 1 and 5 words")

class ComparisonPipeline(dspy.Module):
    def __init__(self):
        # Generate multiple reasoning attempts
        self.cot = dspy.ChainOfThought(BasicQA)

        # Compare M attempts and select best
        # Must pass a Signature class, not a string
        self.compare = dspy.MultiChainComparison(
            BasicQA,
            M=3,  # Number of attempts to compare
            temperature=0.7
        )

    def forward(self, question):
        # Generate multiple completions to compare
        # Each completion must have rationale/reasoning field
        completions = [
            self.cot(question=question)
            for _ in range(3)
        ]

        # MultiChainComparison synthesizes them into best answer
        # Pass completions as positional arg, not keyword arg
        return self.compare(completions, question=question)

# Usage
dspy.configure(lm=dspy.LM("openai/gpt-4o-mini"))
pipeline = ComparisonPipeline()
result = pipeline(question="Explain quantum computing")
print(f"Best answer: {result.answer}")
print(f"Rationale: {result.rationale}")

Phase 3: Sequential Composition

Chain modules for multi-step workflows:

import dspy

# Define signatures for each step
class QueryRewrite(dspy.Signature):
    """Rewrite a question for better retrieval."""
    question = dspy.InputField()
    refined_query: str = dspy.OutputField()

class GenerateAnswer(dspy.Signature):
    """Generate answer from context and question."""
    context = dspy.InputField()
    question = dspy.InputField()
    answer = dspy.OutputField()

class ValidateAnswer(dspy.Signature):
    """Validate answer quality."""
    answer = dspy.InputField()
    question = dspy.InputField()
    is_valid: bool = dspy.OutputField()
    confidence: float = dspy.OutputField()

class SequentialRAG(dspy.Module):
    """Multi-step RAG pipeline."""

    def __init__(self):
        # Step 1: Query rewriting
        self.rewrite = dspy.Predict(QueryRewrite)

        # Step 2: Retrieval
        self.retrieve = dspy.Retrieve(k=5)

        # Step 3: Answer generation
        self.generate = dspy.ChainOfThought(GenerateAnswer)

        # Step 4: Validation
        self.validate = dspy.Predict(ValidateAnswer)

    def forward(self, question):
        # Sequential execution
        refined = self.rewrite(question=question)
        passages = self.retrieve(refined.refined_query).passages

        answer_pred = self.generate(
            context=passages,
            question=question
        )

        validation = self.validate(
            answer=answer_pred.answer,
            question=question
        )

        return dspy.Prediction(
            answer=answer_pred.answer,
            is_valid=validation.is_valid,
            confidence=validation.confidence
        )

# Usage
dspy.configure(lm=dspy.LM("openai/gpt-4o-mini"))
rag = SequentialRAG()
result = rag(question="What causes lightning?")
print(f"Answer: {result.answer} (valid: {result.is_valid})")

Phase 4: Fallback Strategies

Handle failures with fallback modules:

import dspy
import logging

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

class BasicQA(dspy.Signature):
    """Answer questions with short factoid answers."""
    question = dspy.InputField()
    answer = dspy.OutputField()

class RobustQA(dspy.Module):
    """Fallback strategy for errors."""

    def __init__(self):
        self.primary = dspy.ChainOfThought(BasicQA)
        self.fallback = dspy.Predict(BasicQA)

    def forward(self, question):
        try:
            result = self.primary(question=question)
            if result.answer and len(result.answer) > 10:
                return result
        except Exception as e:
            logger.error(f"Primary failed: {e}")

        return self.fallback(question=question)

Production Example

import dspy
from dspy.teleprompt import BootstrapFewShot, Ensemble

class GenerateAnswer(dspy.Signature):
    """Generate answer from context and question."""
    context = dspy.InputField()
    question = dspy.InputField()
    answer = dspy.OutputField()

class MultiStrategyQA(dspy.Module):
    """Production QA with retrieval."""

    def __init__(self):
        self.retrieve = dspy.Retrieve(k=3)
        self.generate = dspy.ChainOfThought(GenerateAnswer)

    def forward(self, question: str):
        context = self.retrieve(question).passages
        return self.generate(context=context, question=question)

# Usage with optimization
dspy.configure(lm=dspy.LM("openai/gpt-4o-mini"))
qa = MultiStrategyQA()

# First, optimize the base program
optimizer = BootstrapFewShot(
    metric=lambda ex, pred, trace: ex.answer in pred.answer,
    max_bootstrapped_demos=3
)

compiled_qa = optimizer.compile(qa, trainset=trainset)

# Then create ensemble from multiple optimized programs
# (train with different seeds or optimizers to get diversity)
program1 = optimizer.compile(qa, trainset=trainset)
program2 = optimizer.compile(qa, trainset=trainset)
program3 = optimizer.compile(qa, trainset=trainset)

ensemble = Ensemble(reduce_fn=dspy.majority)
final_program = ensemble.compile([program1, program2, program3])

Best Practices

  • Test modules independently - Validate each module before composition
  • Handle failures gracefully - Use try/except in parallel composition
  • Balance cost vs accuracy - Ensembles are expensive (N × cost)
  • Optimize composed programs - Use BootstrapFewShot or MIPROv2 on final composition
  • Module reusability - Design modules to work in multiple compositions

Limitations

  • Ensemble increases cost linearly with module count
  • Voting strategies may not work for all output types
  • Sequential composition amplifies latency
  • Error propagation in chains can be hard to debug
  • Parallel composition requires careful state management

Official Documentation

  • DSPy Documentation: https://dspy.ai/
  • DSPy GitHub: https://github.com/stanfordnlp/dspy
  • Modules Guide: https://dspy.ai/learn/programming/modules/

How to use it

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Take omidzamani/dspy-advanced-module-composition from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

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