Philosophy

Republic is built on three core principles that guide every design decision.

Clear Separation of Concerns

Each component has a single, well-defined responsibility.

Complex AI systems often become tangled webs of interdependent code. Republic enforces clear boundaries:

• Snippets: Reusable content fragments
• Templates: Dynamic logic and rendering
• Prompts: Complete, ready-to-use outputs
• Functions: Business logic and data processing

This separation makes systems easier to understand, test, and maintain.

Environment Awareness

Dynamic behavior based on deployment context.

AI systems need different behavior in development vs. production. Republic makes this explicit:

• Configuration-driven: Environment settings in prompts.toml
• Template integration: Conditional logic based on environment
• Validation: Ensure consistency across environments
• Debugging: Enhanced output in development mode

Composable Design

Build complex prompts from simple, reusable components.

The best software systems are built from small, focused components that work together. Republic applies this principle to prompt engineering:

• Modular: Small pieces that do one thing well
• Reusable: Components work across different contexts
• Testable: Easy to validate individual components
• Scalable: Complexity grows linearly, not exponentially

Inspiration

Republic draws inspiration from successful software patterns:

• Unix philosophy: Small tools that do one thing well
• Modern web frameworks: Convention over configuration
• Infrastructure as code: Declarative, version-controlled systems
• Component architectures: Reusable, composable building blocks

The Result

The agentic system that feels natural to developers, scales with your needs, and maintains clarity even as complexity grows.

Simple things should be simple. Complex things should be possible.