Choosing a framework
The research step recommends a framework for your topic, so most of the time you can accept it. When you want to choose yourself, start here.
Ask these in order
Stop at the first question you can answer yes to.
- 1Must the answer come only from your files or repository?Grounded Synthesis
- 2Will the prompt run somewhere that can search or call tools, and does it need current facts?ReAct (Reason + Act)
- 3Is there one correct answer, and is a wrong one costly?Self-Consistency (CoT-SC)
- 4Does the answer hinge on a general principle or concept?Step-Back Prompting
- 5Are there several competing routes with real trade-offs?Tree-of-Thoughts
- None of the aboveChain-of-Thought
Side by side
Speed and cost are relative to a single Chain-of-Thought pass, estimated from how much reasoning each protocol asks the model to do. They are guides, not benchmarks.
| Framework | Best for | Speed | Cost | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chain-of-Thought | Structured problems with clear steps | Fast | Low | Nothing extra |
| Tree-of-Thoughts | Complex, open-ended challenges | Slow | High | Nothing extra |
| Self-Consistency (CoT-SC) | Questions with one correct answer | Moderate | Medium | Nothing extra |
| Step-Back Prompting | Conceptual and knowledge questions | Fast | Low | Nothing extra |
| Grounded Synthesis | Summarizing or extracting from your documents | Moderate | Medium | Uploaded files or a connected GitHub repository |
| ReAct (Reason + Act) | Answers that depend on current information | Slow | Medium | A tool-enabled environment (search, retrieval or APIs) |