How can I configure external API calls in the OpenAI Playground using JSON?

Below is some clarification on how to configure your API call:

Custom GPT Actions vs. Playground

• Custom GPT Models (ChatGPT interface):
  When you built your Custom GPT model using the ChatGPT interface, you were able to use the JSON configuration (including your OpenAPI schema and authentication settings) to trigger external API calls using GPT Actions. This configuration is done within the Custom GPT setup page by pasting your OpenAPI specification and adding the necessary authentication mechanisms.

• OpenAI Playground (GPT-3 via API):
  The Playground currently doesn’t support configuring external API calls with a JSON configuration in the same way as the Custom GPT actions. The JSON snippet you provided:

  JSONCopied
  {
    "actions": [
      {
        "name": "fetchProducts",
        "url": "https://api.example.com/products",
        "method": "GET"
      }
    ]
  }

  is intended for the Custom GPT model environment and is interpreted as part of the custom actions schema for ChatGPT’s function calling. When you try to load it in the Playground, GPT-3 does not have an automated mechanism to process that JSON and make an API call. That’s why you see an "Invalid JSON" error or simply no execution of the external call.

What Should You Do?

• Integrate API Calls in Your Own Code:
  Within the Playground or your application using GPT-3 via the API, you would need to handle external API calls on your own. This means:

  1. First, invoke your external API (for example, using your preferred HTTP client library) to fetch the product list.
  2. Then, pass the results as part of the prompt context to the GPT-3 model so that it can make recommendations based on the product list.

• Hybrid Approach:
  You can design your system in two steps:

  1. Data Retrieval: Write separate code (outside the Playground) to fetch data from your API.
  2. Data Processing and Recommendation: Send the fetched product list along with the user query to GPT-3 via the API call, so that GPT-3 can analyze the data and respond accordingly.

Summary

There isn’t a built-in way in the Playground to natively configure and trigger external API calls via a JSON configuration like you do with custom actions in ChatGPT. Instead, the API call to fetch product data must be handled externally (for example, in your backend), and then you provide the fetched data into your prompt for GPT-3 to use.

This setup ensures your assistant can use real-time data retrieved from your API while leveraging GPT-3 for generating recommendations based on that data.