(message class, template) tuples in ChatPromptTemplate.from_messages (#33989)
### Description
`ChatPromptTemplate.from_messages` supports multiple tuple formats for
defining message templates. One documented format is `(message class,
template)`, which allows users to specify the message type using the
class directly:
```python
ChatPromptTemplate.from_messages([
(SystemMessage, "You are a helpful assistant named {name}."),
(HumanMessage, "{input}"),
])
```
However, this syntax was broken. Passing a tuple like `(HumanMessage,
"{input}")` would raise a Pydantic validation error because the
conversion logic in `_convert_to_message_template` didn't handle
`BaseMessage` subclasses—it only recognized string-based role
identifiers like `"human"` or `"system"`.
This PR adds the missing branch to detect when the first element of a
tuple is a message class (by checking for the `type` class attribute)
and routes it through `_create_template_from_message_type`, which
already knows how to create the appropriate `MessagePromptTemplate` for
each message type.
### Changes
- Updated `_convert_to_message_template` to properly support `(message
class, template)` tuples
### Testing
Added 16 comprehensive unit tests covering:
- Basic usage with `HumanMessage`, `AIMessage`, and `SystemMessage`
classes
- Integration with `invoke()` method
- Mixed syntax (message class tuples alongside string tuples)
- Multiple template variables
- Edge cases: empty templates, static text (no variables)
- Correct extraction of `input_variables`
- Partial variables support
- Combination with `MessagesPlaceholder`
- Mustache template format
- Template operations: `append()`, `extend()`, concatenation, and
slicing
- Special characters and unicode in templates
### Issue
Fixes #33791
### Dependencies
None
---------
Co-authored-by: Mason Daugherty <mason@langchain.dev>
The platform for reliable agents.
LangChain is a framework for building agents and LLM-powered applications. It helps you chain together interoperable components and third-party integrations to simplify AI application development – all while future-proofing decisions as the underlying technology evolves.
pip install langchain
If you're looking for more advanced customization or agent orchestration, check out LangGraph, our framework for building controllable agent workflows.
Documentation:
- docs.langchain.com – Comprehensive documentation, including conceptual overviews and guides
- reference.langchain.com/python – API reference docs for LangChain packages
Discussions: Visit the LangChain Forum to connect with the community and share all of your technical questions, ideas, and feedback.
Note
Looking for the JS/TS library? Check out LangChain.js.
Why use LangChain?
LangChain helps developers build applications powered by LLMs through a standard interface for models, embeddings, vector stores, and more.
Use LangChain for:
- Real-time data augmentation. Easily connect LLMs to diverse data sources and external/internal systems, drawing from LangChain's vast library of integrations with model providers, tools, vector stores, retrievers, and more.
- Model interoperability. Swap models in and out as your engineering team experiments to find the best choice for your application's needs. As the industry frontier evolves, adapt quickly – LangChain's abstractions keep you moving without losing momentum.
- Rapid prototyping. Quickly build and iterate on LLM applications with LangChain's modular, component-based architecture. Test different approaches and workflows without rebuilding from scratch, accelerating your development cycle.
- Production-ready features. Deploy reliable applications with built-in support for monitoring, evaluation, and debugging through integrations like LangSmith. Scale with confidence using battle-tested patterns and best practices.
- Vibrant community and ecosystem. Leverage a rich ecosystem of integrations, templates, and community-contributed components. Benefit from continuous improvements and stay up-to-date with the latest AI developments through an active open-source community.
- Flexible abstraction layers. Work at the level of abstraction that suits your needs - from high-level chains for quick starts to low-level components for fine-grained control. LangChain grows with your application's complexity.
LangChain ecosystem
While the LangChain framework can be used standalone, it also integrates seamlessly with any LangChain product, giving developers a full suite of tools when building LLM applications.
To improve your LLM application development, pair LangChain with:
- LangGraph – Build agents that can reliably handle complex tasks with LangGraph, our low-level agent orchestration framework. LangGraph offers customizable architecture, long-term memory, and human-in-the-loop workflows – and is trusted in production by companies like LinkedIn, Uber, Klarna, and GitLab.
- Integrations – List of LangChain integrations, including chat & embedding models, tools & toolkits, and more
- LangSmith – Helpful for agent evals and observability. Debug poor-performing LLM app runs, evaluate agent trajectories, gain visibility in production, and improve performance over time.
- LangSmith Deployment – Deploy and scale agents effortlessly with a purpose-built deployment platform for long-running, stateful workflows. Discover, reuse, configure, and share agents across teams – and iterate quickly with visual prototyping in LangSmith Studio.
- Deep Agents (new!) – Build agents that can plan, use subagents, and leverage file systems for complex tasks
Additional resources
- API Reference – Detailed reference on navigating base packages and integrations for LangChain.
- Contributing Guide – Learn how to contribute to LangChain projects and find good first issues.
- Code of Conduct – Our community guidelines and standards for participation.