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Structured outputs let you enforce a JSON schema on model responses so you can reliably extract structured data, describe images, or keep every reply consistent.

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Generating structured JSON

  • cURL
  • Python
  • JavaScript
curl -X POST http://localhost:11434/api/chat -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "model": "gpt-oss",
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Tell me about Canada in one line"}],
  "stream": false,
  "format": "json"
}'

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Generating structured JSON with a schema

Provide a JSON schema to the format field.
It is ideal to also pass the JSON schema as a string in the prompt to ground the model’s response.
  • cURL
  • Python
  • JavaScript
curl -X POST http://localhost:11434/api/chat -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "model": "gpt-oss",
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Tell me about Canada."}],
  "stream": false,
  "format": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "name": {"type": "string"},
      "capital": {"type": "string"},
      "languages": {
        "type": "array",
        "items": {"type": "string"}
      }
    },
    "required": ["name", "capital", "languages"]
  }
}'

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Example: Extract structured data

Define the objects you want returned and let the model populate the fields: 
from ollama import chat
from pydantic import BaseModel

class Pet(BaseModel):
  name: str
  animal: str
  age: int
  color: str | None
  favorite_toy: str | None

class PetList(BaseModel):
  pets: list[Pet]

response = chat(
  model='gpt-oss',
  messages=[{'role': 'user', 'content': 'I have two cats named Luna and Loki...'}],
  format=PetList.model_json_schema(),
)

pets = PetList.model_validate_json(response.message.content)
print(pets)

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Example: Vision with structured outputs

Vision models accept the same format parameter, enabling deterministic descriptions of images: 
from ollama import chat
from pydantic import BaseModel
from typing import Literal, Optional

class Object(BaseModel):
  name: str
  confidence: float
  attributes: str

class ImageDescription(BaseModel):
  summary: str
  objects: list[Object]
  scene: str
  colors: list[str]
  time_of_day: Literal['Morning', 'Afternoon', 'Evening', 'Night']
  setting: Literal['Indoor', 'Outdoor', 'Unknown']
  text_content: Optional[str] = None

response = chat(
  model='gemma3',
  messages=[{
    'role': 'user',
    'content': 'Describe this photo and list the objects you detect.',
    'images': ['path/to/image.jpg'],
  }],
  format=ImageDescription.model_json_schema(),
  options={'temperature': 0},
)

image_description = ImageDescription.model_validate_json(response.message.content)
print(image_description)

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Tips for reliable structured outputs

  • Define schemas with Pydantic (Python) or Zod (JavaScript) so they can be reused for validation.
  • Lower the temperature (e.g., set it to 0) for more deterministic completions.
  • Structured outputs work through the OpenAI-compatible API via response_format
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