Show HN: WeaveMark – a specification language for reusable prompts

Hi folks,

WeaveMark is an open-source specification language for prompts: you specify abstract intent (using Markdown + special directives) and an LLM-based processor makes it concrete (either by "compilation" or - optionally - actual execution). The prompt specifications (which I call "promplets") allow composition, refinement, control flow branching, and other useful abstractions.

80-second demo video (rough, but might help): https://youtu.be/gHJ4O_QGWJ4

docs and other material: https://paulosalem.github.io/weavemark

repo: https://github.com/paulosalem/weavemark

I've been working on this side project for a few months. The core idea is to see prompts as a way to "structure thought" much like a program. In real everyday natural language, this seldom happens, as discourse tends to be messy and repetitive. But if we consider technical/academic writing, people do some of that: "Consider what we saw in chapter C. Under those conditions, we can ..." -- so "chapter C" is a kind of reusable structure. WeaveMark attempts to make such structure explicit.

A very unusual aspect of WeaveMark is that its compilation is also LLM-based (with some deterministic support for best results). This is mainly to allow what I'm calling "semantic transformations". So, for example, the directive `@refine some_prompt.md` combines the `some_prompt.md` content with the current prompt, semantically, not just adding some string. Similarly, we have directives like `@polish`, `@expand`, `@normalize`, etc. This is all very experimental of course, obviously this ends up model-dependent and is no formal method, so surely there are still problems there... A very simple WeaveMark promplet example (merely illustrative):

  @refine module:weavemark.std.guidelines.evidence_quality
  @refine module:weavemark.std.lenses.decision_gate

  # Release decision
  Should we release @{release}?

  # Audience requirements
    @match @{audience}
        "Implementation Team" ==>
            Emphasize architecture, interfaces, failure modes, and test evidence.

        "Release Team" ==>
            Emphasize readiness criteria, user impact, operational risks, and rollback options.
    
  # Development notes
  @{dev_notes}

  @output enforce: strict
    Return the decision, evidence, risks, and next action.

You can try a replay (without an OpenAI API key) of more useful cases to see it working from recorded runs:

  pip install weavemark
    
  weavemark library ai-kanban-board --replay --verbose --open
  weavemark library market-snapshot --replay --verbose --open

These are for an "AI Kanban board" software spec (just compile a final prompt to give some AI programming agent) and an investment report workflow (actually runs the research of a specific stock). If you want to test it live, or see other examples, there are quick start instructions and references in the repo's README.

I would appreciate feedback on the core design rather than the polish, and any additional ideas you may have. Is such semantic composition/transformation useful enough to justify an LLM-based compiler? What would be good potential applications for this kind of thing?

Thanks, Paulo Salem