
Promptfoo - Detailed Review
Data Tools

Promptfoo - Product Overview
Overview
Promptfoo is a comprehensive tool designed for evaluating, securing, and optimizing Large Language Models (LLMs) and their applications. Here’s a detailed overview of its primary function, target audience, and key features.Primary Function
Promptfoo is an open-source tool that focuses on the security and performance evaluation of LLM applications. It is particularly useful for red teaming, which involves simulating attacks on AI systems to identify vulnerabilities and improve their security and reliability.Target Audience
The primary target audience for Promptfoo includes developers, security teams, and larger enterprises that are developing and deploying LLM applications. It is especially valuable for organizations that need to ensure the security, compliance, and performance of their AI models.Key Features
Red Teaming and Vulnerability Scanning
Promptfoo automatically scans for over 50 types of vulnerabilities, including security and data privacy issues like jailbreaks, injections, and RAG poisoning, as well as compliance and ethics concerns such as harmful or biased content.Customizable Providers and Targets
The tool allows for the configuration of various providers and targets, including popular LLM platforms like OpenAI, Azure, Anthropic, and HuggingFace. It also supports custom HTTP endpoints, local models, and custom Python or JavaScript implementations.Collaboration and Integrations
Promptfoo offers features for team collaboration, including shared repositories for prompts, model configurations, and red team test cases. It integrates seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines such as Jenkins, GitLab CI, and GitHub Actions, and connects with existing evaluation frameworks and reporting tools.Reports and Continuous Monitoring
The tool provides detailed reports and continuous monitoring capabilities, enabling users to understand their LLM security and compliance status across all projects. It automates the evaluation of LLM performance and security on a scheduled basis and sends real-time alerts for detected vulnerabilities or performance issues.Issue Tracking and Remediation
Promptfoo includes issue tracking and guided remediation features, helping teams track the progress of their remediation efforts and providing suggested steps for addressing each issue.On-Premise or Private Cloud Deployment
For enhanced security, Promptfoo can be deployed within an organization’s own infrastructure, ensuring that prompts and data never leave the network. It also offers an optional managed cloud service.Enterprise Support
Enterprise customers benefit from additional support features, including single sign-on, priority support with a 24-hour SLA, and a named account manager.Conclusion
Overall, Promptfoo is a versatile and powerful tool that helps developers and enterprises ensure the security, compliance, and performance of their LLM applications.
Promptfoo - User Interface and Experience
User Interface
Dual Interface
Matrix Views
Ease of Use
Simplicity in Evaluation
YAML Configuration
User Experience
Developer-Friendly Features
Collaboration Tools
Language-Agnostic
Engagement and Factual Accuracy
Validity Checks
Performance Insights

Promptfoo - Key Features and Functionality
Introduction
Promptfoo is a versatile, open-source tool designed to help developers and businesses evaluate, secure, and optimize large language models (LLMs). Here are the key features and functionalities of Promptfoo:
Testing and Evaluation
Promptfoo allows you to systematically test prompts across multiple LLM providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, and more. You can evaluate LLM outputs using various assertion types and calculate metrics like accuracy, safety, and performance. This is achieved through a simple, flexible, and extensible API that can be used as a command-line tool, a library, or integrated into your CI/CD pipeline.
Red Teaming and Vulnerability Scanning
Promptfoo supports LLM red teaming, which involves systematically testing LLMs to identify potential vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and unintended behaviors before deployment. It generates and executes adversarial tests aligned with industry standards like OWASP LLM Top 10 and NIST AI Risk Management Framework. This helps in improving AI system safety and reliability and continuously monitoring LLM performance against evolving threats.
Model Comparison
You can compare different LLM models side-by-side to evaluate their performance on various prompts. This feature is particularly useful for selecting the best model for your specific use case.
Automation and Integration
Promptfoo automates many checks and can be integrated into your CI/CD pipeline, ensuring that evaluations are run consistently and efficiently. It also supports live reloads and caching, making the evaluation process faster.
Security and Privacy
The tool runs 100% locally, ensuring that your prompts never leave your machine, thus maintaining privacy. It also generates security vulnerability reports to help you identify and address potential risks.
Custom Integrations
Promptfoo supports a wide range of custom integrations, including file-based providers, JavaScript and Python providers, HTTP/HTTPS APIs, WebSocket providers, and custom scripts. This flexibility allows you to work with various LLM APIs and programming languages.
Collaboration and Sharing
The tool includes built-in share functionality and a web viewer, making it easy to share results with your team and collaborate on evaluations. This enhances teamwork and ensures that everyone is on the same page.
Developer-Friendly Features
Promptfoo is developer-friendly, with features like live reloads and caching that speed up evaluations. It is also battle-tested, having been used in production environments serving over 10 million users. The tool uses simple, declarative test cases that do not require writing code or working with heavy notebooks.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Promptfoo helps you make decisions based on metrics rather than intuition. It provides structured results and automatic scoring of outputs, allowing you to select the best model and prompt for your use case.
Workflow and Philosophy
The tool promotes a test-driven approach to prompt engineering. You define test cases, configure evaluations, run the evaluations, analyze the results, and then feedback into the process to continuously improve your LLM applications.
Conclusion
In summary, Promptfoo is a comprehensive tool that streamlines the process of evaluating, securing, and optimizing LLMs, making it an essential resource for developers and businesses working with AI applications.

Promptfoo - Performance and Accuracy
Promptfoo Overview
Promptfoo is a powerful tool designed to evaluate and compare the performance and accuracy of large language models (LLMs) in a systematic and efficient manner. Here are some key points regarding its performance, accuracy, and any limitations or areas for improvement:Performance Evaluation
Promptfoo allows developers to test prompts, models, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) setups against predefined test cases. It facilitates side-by-side comparisons of LLM outputs to detect quality variances and regressions, which is crucial for identifying the best-performing models for specific applications.Key Features
- Efficiency: Promptfoo utilizes caching and concurrent testing to expedite evaluations, making it efficient for large-scale testing.
- Scalability: It is designed to work with a wide range of LLM APIs, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, Google, HuggingFace, and open-source models like Llama, as well as custom API providers.
Accuracy and Quality
Promptfoo supports various types of assertions to evaluate LLM outputs against predefined expectations, ensuring high accuracy and quality:Assertion Types
- Assertion Types: These include cost assertions, contains-JSON assertions, answer-relevance assertions, llm-rubric assertions, and model-graded-closedQA assertions. These help in validating the structure, relevance, and factual correctness of the outputs.
- Automatic Scoring: Promptfoo can automatically score outputs based on predefined expectations, which helps in maintaining consistent quality standards.
Limitations and Areas for Improvement
While Promptfoo is highly versatile and effective, there are a few areas to consider:Challenges
- Complexity in Setup: For more advanced test cases, users may need to integrate Promptfoo with testing frameworks like Jest, Vitest, or Mocha, which can add complexity to the setup process.
- Customization: While Promptfoo offers a wide range of features, users might need to write custom scripts or use JavaScript/Python providers for specific processing or formatting of outputs, which could be time-consuming.
- Red Teaming: Although Promptfoo supports LLM red teaming by generating and executing adversarial tests, this process might require additional effort and resources to set up and maintain, especially for continuous monitoring against evolving threats.
Engagement and Factual Accuracy
Promptfoo is particularly strong in ensuring engagement and factual accuracy through its various assertion types and scoring mechanisms. For example:Assertion Examples
- Answer-Relevance Assertion: Ensures that the LLM output is relevant to the original query or topic, maintaining thematic accuracy.
- Model-Graded-ClosedQA Assertion: Verifies that the output adheres to specific criteria for factual correctness and thematic relevance.

Promptfoo - Pricing and Plans
The Pricing Structure of Promptfoo
The pricing structure of Promptfoo includes two main tiers: the Open Source version and the Enterprise version.
Open Source Version
- This version is free and open-source, focusing on local testing and one-off scans.
- It offers features such as adaptive scans, continuous monitoring (though limited compared to the Enterprise version), and guided mitigation for vulnerabilities.
- Key features include dynamic test sets, ML search and optimization algorithms, and support for various LLM APIs and programming languages without requiring SDKs or agents.
Enterprise Version
- The Enterprise version is a commercial offering that provides additional capabilities beyond the Open Source version.
- Features include team collaboration, continuous monitoring with a centralized security dashboard, customized plugins, Single Sign-On (SSO), access control, cloud deployment options, and priority support with Service Level Agreement (SLA) guarantees.
- This version also offers more advanced security features, such as comprehensive coverage for 30 areas of harm, including prompt injections, jailbreaks, data/PII leaks, and bias/toxicity, adhering to frameworks like OWASP, NIST, and EU AI standards.
There is no detailed pricing information available for the Enterprise version on the provided sources, indicating that potential users would need to contact Promptfoo directly for specific pricing details.

Promptfoo - Integration and Compatibility
Promptfoo Overview
Promptfoo is a versatile and integrated tool that seamlessly fits into various development workflows and environments, making it highly compatible across different platforms and devices.
Integration with LLM Providers
Promptfoo supports a wide range of large language model (LLM) providers, including OpenAI (GPT-4, GPT-3.5), Anthropic (Claude), Google (PaLM, Gemini), Amazon Bedrock (Claude, Llama), Azure OpenAI, Replicate, and Hugging Face. This broad compatibility allows developers to test and evaluate LLMs from multiple sources within a single framework.
CI/CD Pipelines
Promptfoo can be integrated into Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, enabling automated testing and evaluation of LLM outputs. This integration helps in catching regressions and ensuring the quality and reliability of AI-generated content throughout the development cycle.
Testing Frameworks
The tool is flexible and can run as a command-line tool, a library, or integrate with existing testing frameworks. This flexibility makes it easy to incorporate into various development setups, whether you are using Python, JavaScript, or any other language.
Proxy Support
For environments that require proxy settings, Promptfoo allows configuration through environment variables (`HTTP_PROXY` and `HTTPS_PROXY`). This ensures that the tool can operate smoothly in corporate or restricted network environments.
Langfuse Integration
Promptfoo can be integrated with Langfuse for advanced prompt management. This integration enables users to update prompts without redeploying the application, track and revert to previous prompt versions, and monitor and optimize prompt performance. Prompts from Langfuse can be referenced directly in Promptfoo using a specific prefix (`langfuse://`) in the configuration file.
Local and Private Operation
One of the key features of Promptfoo is its local-first approach. The tool runs on the user’s machine, and calls to LLM APIs are sent directly to the respective providers without any intermediate servers. This ensures that API keys and LLM inputs and outputs remain private and are not stored or transmitted unnecessarily.
Collaboration and Sharing
Promptfoo includes built-in share functionality and a web viewer, which facilitates collaboration among team members. Users can share inputs and outputs, which are stored in Cloudflare KV for two weeks if the share command is used explicitly.
Conclusion
In summary, Promptfoo’s compatibility and integration capabilities make it a highly versatile tool for evaluating and securing LLM applications across various platforms and development environments.

Promptfoo - Customer Support and Resources
Community and Support
- Discord Community: Promptfoo has an active Discord community where users can seek help, discuss issues, and share knowledge with other developers.
Documentation and Guides
- Full Documentation: Promptfoo provides comprehensive documentation that includes guides on getting started, red teaming, and using the CLI. This documentation is available on their official website and covers various aspects of the tool.
- Red Teaming Guide: A specific guide focused on red teaming and vulnerability scanning to help secure LLM applications.
- Usage Docs: Detailed documentation on using the command-line utility, including all available subcommands and options.
Tutorials and Examples
- Getting Started Guide: A step-by-step guide to help new users initialize and run their first evaluation. This guide is available on the official website and through blog posts like the one by Stephen Collins.
- Sample Projects: Users can access sample projects and code repositories, such as the one accompanying Stephen Collins’ blog post, to see Promptfoo in action.
Feedback Mechanism
- Feedback Command: Users can send feedback directly to the Promptfoo developers using the `feedback` command in the CLI. This helps in improving the tool based on user input.
Collaboration Tools
- Share Functionality: Promptfoo allows users to create shareable URLs for their evaluations, making it easier to collaborate with teammates. Additionally, there is a web UI for visualizing and exploring test results.
Open-Source Community
- Contributions Welcome: Promptfoo is open-source and welcomes contributions. Users can check out the contributing guide to get started with contributing to the project.
By leveraging these resources, users can ensure they are using Promptfoo effectively and securely, and they have multiple channels to seek help and provide feedback.

Promptfoo - Pros and Cons
Advantages of Promptfoo
Promptfoo offers several significant advantages for developers, data scientists, and AI researchers working with large language models (LLMs):User-Friendly Interface
Promptfoo features an intuitive interface that makes it easy for users to perform tasks efficiently, even though there may be a learning curve for those new to prompt engineering and LLMs.Custom Metrics Support
Users can define their own custom evaluation metrics or use built-in ones, ensuring precise and relevant evaluations that meet specific needs and requirements.Wide Compatibility
Promptfoo supports a range of popular LLM providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Mistral, offering flexibility in model selection and integration into existing workflows.Streamlined Process
The platform streamlines the process of prompt crafting and model evaluation, saving significant time. It allows users to create test datasets using representative samples of user inputs, reducing subjectivity in prompt tuning.Detailed Evaluations
Promptfoo provides detailed, actionable results that aid in better decision-making. Users can compare different prompts and model outputs side-by-side to determine the best-performing ones.Resource Efficiency
Despite being resource-intensive, the inclusion of custom metrics and side-by-side comparison capabilities ensures resource efficiency in evaluations. The tool also supports declarative configuration for setting up evaluations, making the process straightforward.Community and Support
Promptfoo has an active community of users and contributors who provide support, share insights, and contribute to the ongoing development of the project. Extensive documentation and support options, including a community forum and GitHub presence, are available.Disadvantages of Promptfoo
While Promptfoo offers many benefits, there are also some notable disadvantages to consider:Learning Curve
There can be a steep learning curve for new users, particularly those without prior experience in prompt engineering and LLMs. Additional beginner-focused resources and tutorials could help ease this transition.Resource Intensive
Running evaluations and tests can be computationally intensive and may require substantial computational power. This can be a challenge for users without access to robust computing resources.Cost
The implementation of Promptfoo may incur significant costs, particularly for extensive, ongoing evaluations. The pricing model is based on subscription tiers, which can be a financial burden for some users.Initial Setup
The initial setup and understanding of the full capabilities of Promptfoo might require some time and effort, even though the interface is generally user-friendly. In summary, Promptfoo is a valuable tool for optimizing and evaluating LLMs, offering a range of benefits that streamline the process of prompt crafting and model evaluation. However, it does come with some challenges, including a learning curve, resource intensity, and potential costs.
Promptfoo - Comparison with Competitors
Unique Features of Promptfoo
- Local-First and Open-Source: Promptfoo runs locally on your machine, ensuring that all data remains on your device and is not transmitted to any intermediate servers. This enhances security and privacy.
- Multi-LLM Support: Promptfoo supports a wide range of large language model (LLM) providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Amazon Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, Replicate, and Hugging Face, allowing for flexible integration with various models.
- Red Teaming and Security: Promptfoo offers advanced red teaming capabilities, enabling users to generate and execute adversarial tests to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in LLMs. This is particularly valuable for ensuring the safety and reliability of AI systems.
- Customizable and Extensible: The tool features a simple, flexible, and extensible API, allowing users to systematically test prompts, evaluate LLM outputs, and calculate metrics like accuracy, safety, and performance. It can be run as a command-line tool, integrated with testing frameworks, or used in CI/CD pipelines.
Potential Alternatives
While Promptfoo is specialized in evaluating and testing LLMs, other tools focus more broadly on data analysis and AI-driven insights.Data Analytics Tools
- Tableau: Known for its advanced visualizations and intuitive interface, Tableau uses AI to enhance data analysis, preparation, and governance. However, it is more focused on general data analysis rather than LLM evaluation.
- Microsoft Power BI: This tool integrates well with the Microsoft Office suite and offers powerful data visualization and business intelligence capabilities. It is not specifically designed for LLM testing but is strong in general data analysis.
- IBM Cognos Analytics: This tool leverages AI-powered automation and insights for creating dashboards and reports. It includes natural language query support but is more geared towards general business intelligence rather than LLM evaluation.
AI Model Comparison Tools
- While there are no direct competitors that offer the same level of LLM testing and red teaming as Promptfoo, tools like openwebui can be used for occasional or small-scale LLM model comparisons. However, these tools lack the automation and comprehensive testing capabilities of Promptfoo.
Key Differences
- Focus: Promptfoo is specifically designed for evaluating and testing LLMs, including security and performance metrics, whereas tools like Tableau, Power BI, and IBM Cognos Analytics are broader data analytics platforms.
- Integration: Promptfoo’s ability to integrate with multiple LLM providers and its local-first approach set it apart from more centralized data analytics tools.
- Security and Red Teaming: Promptfoo’s emphasis on red teaming and adversarial testing is unique in the market, making it a critical tool for ensuring the safety and reliability of AI systems.

Promptfoo - Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions about Promptfoo
What is Promptfoo?
Promptfoo is a local-first, open-source tool designed to help evaluate and improve large language models (LLMs). It is intended for application developers and business applications, featuring a simple, flexible, and extensible API. With Promptfoo, you can systematically test prompts, evaluate LLM outputs, calculate metrics, and generate adversarial tests.What are the key features of Promptfoo?
Promptfoo allows you to systematically test prompts across multiple LLM providers, evaluate LLM outputs using various assertion types, and calculate metrics like accuracy, safety, and performance. It also supports generating adversarial tests for LLM red teaming, and you can run it as a command-line tool, a library, or integrate it with testing frameworks and CI/CD pipelines. Additionally, you can view results in the browser.Which LLM providers does Promptfoo support?
Promptfoo supports a wide range of LLM providers, including OpenAI (GPT-4, GPT-3.5), Anthropic (Claude), Google (PaLM, Gemini), Amazon Bedrock (Claude, Llama), Azure OpenAI, Replicate, Hugging Face, and local models with custom API integrations. Its flexible architecture allows for easy integration with new or custom LLM providers.Does Promptfoo forward calls to an intermediate server or store API keys?
No, Promptfoo does not forward calls to an intermediate server. Calls to LLM APIs are sent directly to the respective provider. Additionally, API keys are stored as local environment variables and are never transmitted anywhere besides directly to the LLM API.Does Promptfoo store LLM inputs and outputs?
Promptfoo operates locally, and all data remains on your machine. The only exception is when you explicitly use the share command, which stores inputs and outputs in Cloudflare KV for two weeks.What is LLM red teaming, and how does Promptfoo support it?
LLM red teaming is the process of systematically testing LLMs to identify potential vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and unintended behaviors before deployment. Promptfoo supports this by offering a framework for generating and executing adversarial tests, aligned with industry standards like OWASP LLM Top 10 and NIST AI Risk Management Framework. It allows you to generate adversarial tests specific to your LLM application, execute tests at scale, analyze results, and continuously monitor LLM performance against evolving threats.How do I use a proxy with Promptfoo?
You can configure Promptfoo to use a proxy by setting environment variables. Use `HTTP_PROXY` for HTTP requests and `HTTPS_PROXY` for HTTPS requests. The proxy URL format is `host`. For example, you can set `export HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy.company.com:8080` for a basic proxy setup.What are the pricing and licensing options for Promptfoo?
Promptfoo offers a flexible pricing model based on subscription tiers, including pay-as-you-go or monthly/yearly plans. There is also an option for a free trial to explore the tool’s capabilities before committing to a paid plan. However, it is not explicitly stated whether there is a one-time purchase option.What kind of support and resources does Promptfoo provide?
Promptfoo provides extensive support options, including comprehensive documentation, a community forum, and a GitHub presence for collaborative support. Users can also reach out to the support team via a dedicated Discord channel for personalized assistance.How does Promptfoo ensure privacy and security?
Promptfoo runs 100% locally on your machine, and calls to LLM APIs are sent directly to the respective provider without any intermediate servers. API keys and LLM inputs and outputs are kept local and secure, with no personally identifiable information (PII) collected by the Promptfoo team.Can I use Promptfoo in my CI/CD pipeline?
Yes, Promptfoo can be integrated into your CI/CD pipeline. It supports automated checks and evaluations, allowing you to run tests at scale in a pre-deployment environment and analyze results to improve AI system safety and reliability.
Promptfoo - Conclusion and Recommendation
Final Assessment of Promptfoo
Promptfoo is a highly versatile and effective tool in the Data Tools AI-driven product category, particularly for developers and teams working with Large Language Models (LLMs). Here’s a comprehensive overview of its benefits and who would most benefit from using it.
Key Features and Benefits
- Test Case Creation: Promptfoo allows users to create and manage test cases using representative user inputs, reducing subjectivity in prompt fine-tuning.
- Evaluation Metrics: Users can set up both built-in and custom evaluation metrics to align with specific objectives and requirements.
- Prompt and Model Comparison: The tool facilitates side-by-side comparisons of prompts and model outputs, aiding in the selection of the best-performing combinations for specific applications.
- Integration and Efficiency: Promptfoo integrates seamlessly into existing testing and continuous integration (CI) workflows, using caching and concurrent testing to expedite evaluations. It supports a wide range of LLM APIs and can be used as a CLI or a library.
- User-Friendly Interface: It offers both a web viewer and a command-line interface, catering to different user preferences and needs.
Who Would Benefit Most
- Developers: Developers working on LLM applications will find Promptfoo invaluable for systematically evaluating LLM outputs, identifying vulnerabilities, and ensuring the quality and reliability of their applications.
- Teams: Teams involved in LLM development can benefit from Promptfoo’s collaboration features, including the ability to share evaluations and collaborate effortlessly through its web viewer.
- Organizations: Organizations serving large user bases with LLM applications can trust Promptfoo’s proven reliability, as it is already trusted by applications serving over 10 million users.
Overall Recommendation
Promptfoo is highly recommended for anyone involved in the development and testing of LLM applications. Here are some key reasons:
- Quality Assurance: It ensures prompt quality and enhances model outputs through automated assessments and customizable evaluation metrics.
- Efficiency: The tool expedites evaluations using caching and concurrent testing, making it a time-saving solution for developers.
- Reliability: Promptfoo is battle-tested and trusted by a substantial user base, ensuring it meets the high standards required for production environments.
- Ease of Use: With its simple, declarative test cases and support for multiple languages, Promptfoo is accessible to a wide range of users.
In summary, Promptfoo is an essential tool for anyone looking to improve the quality, efficiency, and reliability of their LLM applications. Its comprehensive features, ease of use, and proven trustworthiness make it a valuable addition to any LLM development workflow.