Programasweights

ProgramAsWeights (PAW)

ProgramAsWeights compiles a short natural-language spec into a tiny neural function ("neural software") that takes one text input and returns one text output and runs locally. You compile once on the hosted API; the resulting function then runs locally and offline forever.

• Website: https://programasweights.com
• Docs: https://programasweights.readthedocs.io

When to use this

Reach for PAW when a task is fuzzy text -> text and you want it cheap, fast, local, and repeatable:

• Classification / categorization - sentiment, urgency, intent, topic, spam, or ALERT vs QUIET log lines.
• Extraction - pull emails, names, dates, IDs, or fields out of messy/unstructured text.
• Format repair / normalization - fix broken JSON, normalize dates, clean inconsistent inputs.
• Fuzzy matching - typo-tolerant matching, near-duplicate detection, map a phrase to the closest option.
• Triage / routing - filter noise from logs, route a request to the right handler.

It replaces a brittle regex or an expensive per-item LLM call with one small function that, after compiling, runs in roughly 0.05-0.5s locally with no network.

When NOT to use it

• Long-form or open-ended generation (essays, code, chat) - use a full LLM instead.
• Multi-step reasoning, math, or tasks that need broad world knowledge.
• Anything that is not single text in -> single text out. Functions are stateless and share a ~2048-token window across spec + input + output.

How to use it (the workflow)

1. Check the Hub first. Someone may have already published a function; try a slug before compiling:

import programasweights as paw

fn = paw.function("email-triage")   # downloads once, then runs locally
fn("Urgent: server is down!")        # "immediate"
fn("Newsletter: spring picnic")      # "wait"

2. Otherwise compile your own. A good spec is a description PLUS a few Input: ... Output: ... examples and an explicit output constraint:

import programasweights as paw

fn = paw.compile_and_load("""
Classify support tickets. Return ONLY one of: billing, bug, feature, other.

Input: I was charged twice this month
Output: billing

Input: The export button does nothing
Output: bug

Input: Please add a dark mode
Output: feature
""")

fn("my card got charged again")   # "billing"

3. Iterate with test cases - the #1 practice. Do not accept the first result. Build a small set of input/expected pairs, measure accuracy, then refine the wording and examples and recompile until it is good enough. Treat it like software: test, debug the specific failures, fix the spec, retest. A minimal eval loop:

import programasweights as paw

tests = [
    {"input": "I was charged twice this month", "expected": "billing"},
    {"input": "The export button does nothing", "expected": "bug"},
    {"input": "Please add a dark mode",          "expected": "feature"},
]

fn = paw.compile_and_load(open("spec.txt").read())
results = [(t, fn(t["input"]).strip()) for t in tests]
misses = [(t, got) for t, got in results if got != t["expected"]]
print(f"accuracy: {(len(tests) - len(misses)) / len(tests):.0%}")
for t, got in misses:        # inspect failures, then fix the spec + recompile
    print("FAIL:", t["input"], "-> got", repr(got), "want", repr(t["expected"]))

See references/writing-good-specs.md for how to debug the misses.

4. Save the program id or slug and reuse it locally. Inference needs no server after the first asset download.

Install

pip install programasweights --extra-index-url https://pypi.programasweights.com/simple/

Browser / JavaScript: npm install @programasweights/web. Functions compiled with compiler="paw-4b-gpt2" run client-side via WebAssembly. See references/browser-sdk.md.

What runs where (data flow - read before using)

• Compile sends your spec to the hosted PAW API (https://programasweights.com) and returns a program id. Do not put secrets in a spec.
• Inference runs locally through the SDK and works offline after the first download.
• Auth is optional - anonymous use works. Sign in only for higher compile rate limits and named slugs (export PAW_API_KEY=paw_sk_...).

More detail (load on demand)

• Full API, compilers, versioning, chaining, auth: references/api.md
• Writing and debugging specs: references/writing-good-specs.md
• Browser / JavaScript SDK: references/browser-sdk.md
• Common errors and fixes: references/troubleshooting.md
• Worked case studies (log monitoring, semantic search, tool calling): https://programasweights.readthedocs.io