github-starred/ollama
2
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/ollama/ollama.git synced 2026-05-07 00:22:43 -05:00
Code Issues 14.5k Packages Projects Releases 120 Wiki Activity

[GH-ISSUE #7703] Clarify JSONL as the Returned Format for Streaming JSON Objects #4920

New Issue
Open
opened 2026-04-12 15:58:38 -05:00 by GiteaMirror · 3 comments
GiteaMirror commented 2026-04-12 15:58:38 -05:00
Owner
Copy Link

Originally created by @gwpl on GitHub (Nov 16, 2024).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/ollama/ollama/issues/7703

Current Documentation:
API documentation states:

A stream of JSON objects is returned.

Proposal:
Specify the format explicitly as:

A stream of JSON objects in [JSON Lines (JSONL)] format is returned.

Reasoning:
By constraining the format to JSONL (i.e., each JSON object is serialized on a separate line as per jsonlines.org), parsing implementations become simpler. Instead of relying on complex JSON parsing to determine object boundaries—especially when JSON content may include brackets—developers can leverage line-buffered iterators to process incoming chunks more efficiently.

This clarification aligns the documentation with common parsing practices for streaming JSON data and reduces potential ambiguity.

Originally created by @gwpl on GitHub (Nov 16, 2024). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/ollama/ollama/issues/7703 **Current Documentation**: [API documentation](https://github.com/ollama/ollama/blob/4759d879f2376ffb9b82f296e442ec8ef137f27b/docs/api.md?plain=1#L79) states: > A stream of JSON objects is returned. **Proposal**: Specify the format explicitly as: > A stream of JSON objects in [JSON Lines (JSONL)] format is returned. **Reasoning**: By constraining the format to JSONL (i.e., each JSON object is serialized on a separate line as per [jsonlines.org](https://jsonlines.org/)), parsing implementations become simpler. Instead of relying on complex JSON parsing to determine object boundaries—especially when JSON content may include brackets—developers can leverage line-buffered iterators to process incoming chunks more efficiently. This clarification aligns the documentation with common parsing practices for streaming JSON data and reduces potential ambiguity.
GiteaMirror added the documentation label 2026-04-12 15:58:38 -05:00
GiteaMirror commented 2026-04-12 15:58:39 -05:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@gwpl commented on GitHub (Nov 18, 2024):

Technically speaking it's both: feature request AND documentation,

as this ticket requests "feature", that it is guaranteed, that responses are returned as "one json object per line" to simplify buffer management on client side and correct robust json parsing...

<!-- gh-comment-id:2483911086 --> @gwpl commented on GitHub (Nov 18, 2024): Technically speaking it's both: feature request AND documentation, as this ticket requests "feature", that it is guaranteed, that responses are returned as "one json object per line" to simplify buffer management on client side and correct robust json parsing...
GiteaMirror commented 2026-04-12 15:58:39 -05:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@gwpl commented on GitHub (Nov 20, 2024):

While updateing to https://jsonlines.org/ from https://ndjson.org/ maybe worth to consider updating following sections:

bfd30f4286/api/client.go (L151C1-L152C54)

	request.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
	request.Header.Set("Accept", "application/x-ndjson")

bfd30f4286/server/routes.go (L1324C1-L1324C50)

	c.Header("Content-Type", "application/x-ndjson")
<!-- gh-comment-id:2488346735 --> @gwpl commented on GitHub (Nov 20, 2024): While updateing to https://jsonlines.org/ from https://ndjson.org/ maybe worth to consider updating following sections: https://github.com/ollama/ollama/blob/bfd30f428682cca87f8dcd953fdd2af754a19f89/api/client.go#L151C1-L152C54 ``` request.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json") request.Header.Set("Accept", "application/x-ndjson") ``` https://github.com/ollama/ollama/blob/bfd30f428682cca87f8dcd953fdd2af754a19f89/server/routes.go#L1324C1-L1324C50 ``` c.Header("Content-Type", "application/x-ndjson") ```
GiteaMirror commented 2026-04-12 15:58:39 -05:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@gwpl commented on GitHub (Nov 20, 2024):

Also it looks like in code you are using json.Marshal .

As I am not mainly golang programmer I checked specification and asked perplexity to double check:
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/a53b73a7-5e65-4765-b8db-17dda3adb52d

And looks like that in order to consistently guarantee ollama to return one json object per line,
that json.Compact maybe needed to be introduced :
https://pkg.go.dev/encoding/json#Compact

<!-- gh-comment-id:2488620071 --> @gwpl commented on GitHub (Nov 20, 2024): Also it looks like in code you are using `json.Marshal` . As I am not mainly golang programmer I checked specification and asked perplexity to double check: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/a53b73a7-5e65-4765-b8db-17dda3adb52d And looks like that in order to consistently guarantee ollama to return one json object per line, that `json.Compact` maybe needed to be introduced : https://pkg.go.dev/encoding/json#Compact
Sign in to join this conversation.
No Branch/Tag Specified
Branches Tags
Labels
Clear labels
amd
api
app
bug
build
cli
cloud
compatibility
context-length
create
docker
documentation
embeddings
feature request
feedback wanted
good first issue
gpt-oss
gpu
harmony
help wanted
image
install
intel
js
launch
linux
macos
memory
mlx
model
needs more info
networking
nvidia
ollama.com
performance
pull-request
Mirrored from GitHub Pull Request
 python
question
registry
rendering
thinking
tools
top
vulkan
windows
wsl
No Label documentation
Milestone
No items
No Milestone
Projects
Clear projects
No project
Assignees
Clear assignees
GiteaMirror ninjasurge
No Assignees
1 Participants
Notifications
Due Date
No due date set.
Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference: github-starred/ollama#4920
Delete Branch "%!s()"

Deleting a branch is permanent. Although the deleted branch may continue to exist for a short time before it actually gets removed, it CANNOT be undone in most cases. Continue?