---
sidebar_label: Chat threads
sidebar_position: 32
title: Chat Conversations and Multi-Turn Threads
description: Configure chat conversations and multi-turn threads for LLM evaluation. Learn conversation history, multi-shot prompts, and chat flow testing.
keywords:
  [
    chat conversations,
    multi-turn evaluation,
    conversation history,
    chat threads,
    dialogue testing,
    conversational AI,
    chat flow,
  ]
pagination_prev: configuration/outputs
pagination_next: configuration/caching
---

# Chat conversations / threads

The [prompt file](/docs/configuration/prompts#file-based-prompts) supports a message in OpenAI's JSON prompt format. This allows you to set multiple messages including the system prompt. For example:

```json
[
  { "role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant." },
  { "role": "user", "content": "Who won the world series in {{ year }}?" }
]
```

Equivalent yaml is also supported:

```yaml
- role: system
  content: You are a helpful assistant.
- role: user
  content: Who won the world series in {{ year }}?
```

## Multishot conversations

Most providers support full "multishot" chat conversations, including multiple assistant, user, and system prompts.

One way to do this, if you are using the OpenAI format, is by creating a list of `{role, content}` objects. Here's an example:

```yaml title="promptfooconfig.yaml"
prompts:
  - file://prompt.json

providers:
  - openai:gpt-5-mini

tests:
  - vars:
      messages:
        - role: system
          content: Respond as a pirate
        - role: user
          content: Who founded Facebook?
        - role: assistant
          content: Mark Zuckerberg
        - role: user
          content: Did he found any other companies?
```

Then the prompt itself is just a JSON dump of `messages`:

```liquid title="prompt.json"
{{ messages | dump }}
```

## Simplified chat markup

Alternatively, you may prefer to specify a list of `role: message`, like this:

```yaml
tests:
  - vars:
      messages:
        - user: Who founded Facebook?
        - assistant: Mark Zuckerberg
        - user: Did he found any other companies?
```

This simplifies the config, but we need to work some magic in the prompt template:

```liquid title="prompt.json"
[
{% for message in messages %}
  {% set outer_loop = loop %}
  {% for role, content in message %}
  {
    "role": "{{ role }}",
    "content": "{{ content }}"
  }{% if not (loop.last and outer_loop.last) %},{% endif %}
  {% endfor %}
{% endfor %}
]
```

## Creating a conversation history fixture

Using nunjucks templates, we can combine multiple chat messages. Here's an example in which the previous conversation is a fixture for _all_ tests. Each case tests a different follow-up message:

```yaml title="promptfooconfig.yaml"
# Set up the conversation history
defaultTest:
  vars:
    system_message: Answer concisely
    messages:
      - user: Who founded Facebook?
      - assistant: Mark Zuckerberg
      - user: What's his favorite food?
      - assistant: Pizza

# Test multiple follow-ups
tests:
  - vars:
      question: Did he create any other companies?
  - vars:
      question: What is his role at Internet.org?
  - vars:
      question: Will he let me borrow $5?
```

In the prompt template, we construct the conversation history followed by a user message containing the `question`:

```liquid title="prompt.json"
[
  {
    "role": "system",
    "content": {{ system_message | dump }}
  },
  {% for message in messages %}
    {% for role, content in message %}
      {
        "role": "{{ role }}",
        "content": {{ content | dump }}
      },
    {% endfor %}
  {% endfor %}
  {
    "role": "user",
    "content": {{ question | dump }}
  }
]
```

:::info
Variables containing multiple lines and quotes are automatically escaped in JSON prompt files.

If the file is not valid JSON (such as in the case above, due to the nunjucks `{% for %}` loops), use the built-in nunjucks filter [`dump`](https://mozilla.github.io/nunjucks/templating.html#dump) to stringify the object as JSON.
:::

## Using the `_conversation` variable {#using-the-conversation-variable}

A built-in `_conversation` variable contains the full prompt and previous turns of a conversation. Use it to reference previous outputs and test an ongoing chat conversation.

The `_conversation` variable has the following type signature:

```ts
type Completion = {
  prompt: string | object;
  input: string;
  output: string;
};

type Conversation = Completion[];
```

In most cases, you'll loop through the `_conversation` variable and use each `Completion` object.

Use `completion.prompt` to reference the previous conversation. For example, to get the number of messages in a chat-formatted prompt:

```
{{ completion.prompt.length }}
```

Or to get the first message in the conversation:

```
{{ completion.prompt[0] }}
```

Use `completion.input` as a shortcut to get the last user message. In a chat-formatted prompt, `input` is set to the last user message, equivalent to `completion.prompt[completion.prompt.length - 1].content`.

Here's an example test config. Note how each question assumes context from the previous output:

```yaml title="promptfooconfig.yaml"
tests:
  - vars:
      question: Who founded Facebook?
  - vars:
      question: Where does he live?
  - vars:
      question: Which state is that in?
```

Here is the corresponding prompt:

```json title="prompt.json"
[
  // highlight-start
  {% for completion in _conversation %}
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "{{ completion.input }}"
    },
    {
      "role": "assistant",
      "content": "{{ completion.output }}"
    },
  {% endfor %}
  // highlight-end
  {
    "role": "user",
    "content": "{{ question }}"
  }
]
```

The prompt inserts the previous conversation into the test case, creating a full turn-by-turn conversation:

![multiple turn conversation eval](https://github.com/promptfoo/promptfoo/assets/310310/70048ae5-34ce-46f0-bd28-42d3aa96f03e)

Try it yourself by using the [full example config](https://github.com/promptfoo/promptfoo/tree/main/examples/config-multi-turn).

:::info
When a prompt references `_conversation` as a Nunjucks variable, the eval will run single-threaded (concurrency of 1).
:::

## Separating Chat Conversations

Each unique `conversationId` maintains its own separate conversation history. Scenarios automatically isolate conversations by default.

You can explicitly control conversation grouping by adding a `conversationId` to the test metadata:

```yaml
tests:
  - vars:
      question: 'Who founded Facebook?'
    metadata:
      conversationId: 'conversation1'
  - vars:
      question: 'Where does he live?'
    metadata:
      conversationId: 'conversation1'
  - vars:
      question: 'Where is Yosemite National Park?'
    metadata:
      conversationId: 'conversation2'
  - vars:
      question: 'What are good hikes there?'
    metadata:
      conversationId: 'conversation2'
```

### Including JSON in prompt content

In some cases, you may want to send JSON _within_ the OpenAI `content` field. In order to do this, you must ensure that the JSON is properly escaped.

Here's an example that prompts OpenAI with a JSON object of the structure `{query: string, history: {reply: string}[]}`. It first constructs this JSON object as the `input` variable. Then, it includes `input` in the prompt with proper JSON escaping:

```json title="prompt.json"
{% set input %}
{
    "query": "{{ query }}",
    "history": [
      {% for completion in _conversation %}
        {"reply": "{{ completion.output }}"} {% if not loop.last %},{% endif %}
      {% endfor %}
    ]
}
{% endset %}

[{
  "role": "user",
  "content": {{ input | trim | dump }}
}]
```

Here's the associated config:

```yaml title="promptfooconfig.yaml"
prompts:
  - file://prompt.json
providers:
  - openai:gpt-5-mini
tests:
  - vars:
      query: how you doing
  - vars:
      query: need help with my passport
```

This has the effect of including the conversation history _within_ the prompt content. Here's what's sent to OpenAI for the second test case:

```json
[
  {
    "role": "user",
    "content": "{\n    \"query\": \"how you doing\",\n    \"history\": [\n      \n    ]\n}"
  }
]
```

## Using `storeOutputAs`

The `storeOutputAs` option makes it possible to reference previous outputs in multi-turn conversations. When set, it records the LLM output as a variable that can be used in subsequent chats.

Here's an example:

```yaml title="promptfooconfig.yaml"
prompts:
  - 'Respond to the user: {{message}}'

providers:
  - openai:gpt-5

tests:
  - vars:
      message: "What's your favorite fruit? You must pick one. Output the name of a fruit only"
    options:
      storeOutputAs: favoriteFruit
  - vars:
      message: 'Why do you like {{favoriteFruit}} so much?'
    options:
      storeOutputAs: reason
  - vars:
      message: 'Write a snarky 2 sentence rebuttal to this argument for loving {{favoriteFruit}}: \"{{reason}}\"'
```

This creates `favoriteFruit` and `reason` vars on-the-go, as the chatbot answers questions.

### Manipulating outputs with `transform`

Outputs can be modified before storage using the `transform` property:

```yaml title="promptfooconfig.yaml"
tests:
  - vars:
      message: "What's your favorite fruit? You must pick one. Output the name of a fruit only"
    options:
      storeOutputAs: favoriteFruit
      // highlight-start
      transform: output.split(' ')[0]
      // highlight-end
  - vars:
      message: "Why do you like {{favoriteFruit}} so much?"
    options:
      storeOutputAs: reason
  - vars:
      message: 'Write a snarky 2 sentence rebuttal to this argument for loving {{favoriteFruit}}: \"{{reason}}\"'
```

Transforms can be Javascript snippets or they can be entire separate Python or Javascript files. See [docs on transform](/docs/configuration/guide/#transforming-outputs).

## See Also

- [Prompt Parameters](/docs/configuration/prompts) - Learn about different ways to define prompts
- [Test Configuration](/docs/configuration/guide) - Complete guide to setting up test configurations
- [Transformer Functions](/docs/configuration/guide/#transforming-outputs) - How to transform outputs between test cases
- [Nunjucks Templates](https://mozilla.github.io/nunjucks/templating.html) - Documentation for the template language used in prompt files
- [Multi-turn Conversation Example](https://github.com/promptfoo/promptfoo/tree/main/examples/config-multi-turn) - Complete example of multi-turn conversations