autofn: normal JS functions backed by ChatGPT

Write JavaScript functions but leave out the body. Describe the function's operation in a (currently single-line) comment prefixed by autofn:. Let ChatGPT do the rest!

Note: This is a proof-of-concept.

import "autofn-runtime";

// autofn: Groups `todos` into `categories`. Then, return todos as a flattened array in the order specified by `categories`.
async function sortTodos(todos, categories) {}

const result = await sortTodos(
  [
    "dishes",
    "laundry",
    "submit performance review",
    "call mom",
    "make dr appointment",
  ],
  ["phone", "house chores", "work"]
);

console.log(result);
// ['call mom', 'make dr appointment', 'dishes', 'laundry', 'submit performance review']

See the example project for a working example.

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Q&A

Is this a good idea?

There are a number of other ways of accomplishing this that may be better. In particular, it would be worth investigating a decorator / reflection-based implementation. (Babel is a big hammer.)

Is it production ready?

Ooooooooh no. The code is a proof-of-concept (AKA "trash") that I hacked together in an afternoon.

Are you accepting PRs?

Absolutely! I'll try to review with a light touch.

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Requirements

autofn requires Node and Babel.

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Usage

1. Add autofn-babel as a babel plugin.
2. Add autofn-runtime as a project dependency and add import "autofn-runtime"; to the top of your app's entrypoint.
3. Set the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable.
4. Have fun!

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Next steps

Some ideas:

• Memoize results
  • In-process memoization
  • Filesystem-backed memoization
• Use TypeScript and Flow type information as hints
• Convert to TypeScript project
• Design mechanism for configuring model on a per-fn basis
• Come up with way to quickly "expand" a remote function into a local one