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Dspy Custom Module Design Agent Skill

Use for creating custom DSPy modules, extending dspy.Module, reusable components, stateful modules, serialization, and module testing.

2k tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
2
files
ships runnable scripts
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
119
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

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

What comes with it

423 bytes besides the instruction
example.py

The instruction itself

15 sections, as written by the author

DSPy Custom Module Design

Goal

Design production-quality custom DSPy modules with proper architecture, state management, serialization, and testing patterns.

When to Use

  • Building reusable DSPy components
  • Complex logic beyond built-in modules
  • Need custom state management
  • Sharing modules across projects
  • Production deployment requirements
  • Module composition: dspy-advanced-module-composition
  • Signature design: dspy-signature-designer
  • Optimization: dspy-miprov2-optimizer

Inputs

| Input | Type | Description |

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

| task_description | str | What the module should do |

| components | list | Sub-modules or predictors |

| state | dict | Stateful attributes |

Outputs

| Output | Type | Description |

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

| custom_module | dspy.Module | Production-ready module |

Workflow

Phase 1: Basic Module Structure

All custom modules inherit from dspy.Module:

import dspy

class BasicQA(dspy.Module):
    """Simple question answering module."""

    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.predictor = dspy.Predict("question -> answer")

    def forward(self, question):
        """Entry point for module execution."""
        return self.predictor(question=question)

# Usage
dspy.configure(lm=dspy.LM("openai/gpt-4o-mini"))
qa = BasicQA()
result = qa(question="What is Python?")
print(result.answer)

Phase 2: Stateful Modules

Modules can maintain state across calls:

import dspy
import logging

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

class StatefulRAG(dspy.Module):
    """RAG with query caching."""

    def __init__(self, cache_size=100):
        super().__init__()
        self.retrieve = dspy.Retrieve(k=3)
        self.generate = dspy.ChainOfThought("context, question -> answer")
        self.cache = {}
        self.cache_size = cache_size

    def forward(self, question):
        # Check cache
        if question in self.cache:
            return self.cache[question]

        # Retrieve and generate
        passages = self.retrieve(question).passages
        result = self.generate(context=passages, question=question)

        # Update cache with size limit
        if len(self.cache) >= self.cache_size:
            self.cache.pop(next(iter(self.cache)))
        self.cache[question] = result

        return result

Phase 3: Error Handling and Validation

Production modules need robust error handling:

import dspy
from typing import Optional
import logging

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

class RobustClassifier(dspy.Module):
    """Classifier with validation."""

    def __init__(self, valid_labels: list[str]):
        super().__init__()
        self.valid_labels = set(valid_labels)
        self.classify = dspy.Predict("text -> label: str, confidence: float")

    def forward(self, text: str) -> dspy.Prediction:
        if not text or not text.strip():
            return dspy.Prediction(label="unknown", confidence=0.0, error="Empty input")

        try:
            result = self.classify(text=text)

            # Validate label
            if result.label not in self.valid_labels:
                result.label = "unknown"
                result.confidence = 0.0

            return result

        except Exception as e:
            logger.error(f"Classification failed: {e}")
            return dspy.Prediction(label="unknown", confidence=0.0, error=str(e))

Phase 4: Serialization

Modules support save/load:

import dspy

# Save module state
module = MyCustomModule()
module.save("my_module.json")

# Load requires creating instance first, then loading state
loaded = MyCustomModule()
loaded.load("my_module.json")

# For loading entire programs (dspy>=2.6.0)
module.save("./my_module/", save_program=True)
loaded = dspy.load("./my_module/")

Production Example

import dspy
from typing import List, Optional
import logging

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

class ProductionRAG(dspy.Module):
    """Production-ready RAG with all best practices."""

    def __init__(
        self,
        retriever_k: int = 5,
        cache_enabled: bool = True,
        cache_size: int = 1000
    ):
        super().__init__()

        # Configuration
        self.retriever_k = retriever_k
        self.cache_enabled = cache_enabled
        self.cache_size = cache_size

        # Components
        self.retrieve = dspy.Retrieve(k=retriever_k)
        self.generate = dspy.ChainOfThought("context, question -> answer")

        # State
        self.cache = {} if cache_enabled else None
        self.call_count = 0

    def forward(self, question: str) -> dspy.Prediction:
        """Execute RAG pipeline with caching."""
        self.call_count += 1

        # Validation
        if not question or not question.strip():
            return dspy.Prediction(
                answer="Please provide a valid question.",
                error="Invalid input"
            )

        # Cache check
        if self.cache_enabled and question in self.cache:
            logger.info(f"Cache hit (call #{self.call_count})")
            return self.cache[question]

        # Execute pipeline
        try:
            passages = self.retrieve(question).passages

            if not passages:
                logger.warning("No passages retrieved")
                return dspy.Prediction(
                    answer="No relevant information found.",
                    passages=[]
                )

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

            # Update cache
            if self.cache_enabled:
                self._update_cache(question, result)

            return result

        except Exception as e:
            logger.error(f"RAG execution failed: {e}")
            return dspy.Prediction(
                answer="An error occurred while processing your question.",
                error=str(e)
            )

    def _update_cache(self, key: str, value: dspy.Prediction):
        """Manage cache with size limit."""
        if len(self.cache) >= self.cache_size:
            self.cache.pop(next(iter(self.cache)))
        self.cache[key] = value

    def clear_cache(self):
        """Clear cache."""
        if self.cache_enabled:
            self.cache.clear()

Best Practices

  • Single responsibility - Each module does one thing well
  • Validate inputs - Check for None, empty strings, invalid types
  • Handle errors - Return Predictions with error fields, never raise
  • Log important events - Cache hits, errors, validation failures
  • Test independently - Unit test modules before composition

Limitations

  • State increases memory usage (careful with large caches)
  • Serialization doesn't automatically save custom state
  • Module testing requires mocking LM calls
  • Deep module hierarchies can be hard to debug
  • Performance overhead from validation in hot paths

Official Documentation

  • DSPy Documentation: https://dspy.ai/
  • DSPy GitHub: https://github.com/stanfordnlp/dspy
  • Custom Modules Guide: https://dspy.ai/tutorials/custom_module/
  • Module API: https://dspy.ai/api/modules/

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