Getting Started

To use EDSL, you need to install the package and choose how you want to access language models. Please see links to sections below for more details on each step.

1. Installation

Run the following command to install the EDSL package:

pip show edsl

If you have previously installed EDSL, you can update it with the following command:

pip install --upgrade edsl

See Installation instructions for more details and troubleshooting tips. If you are using EDSL with Google Colab, see the Colab Setup section for special instructions.

2. Create an account

Log in / Sign up with an email address. Your account lets you access the Expected Parrot server to run surveys, use remote caching and collaborate with other users. Enjoy free storage and credits for running surveys, and special features and tools.

See the Coop section for more details on using the Expected Parrot platform to create and share projects, and the Remote Inference and Remote Caching sections for more details on account features for running surveys and storing results at the Expected Parrot server.

3. Manage API keys for language models

EDSL works with many language models from popular service providers, including Anthropic, Azure, Bedrock, DeepInfra, DeepSeek, Google, Mistral, OpenAI, Perplexity and Together. Your account comes with an Expected Parrot API key that lets you run surveys with all available models at the Expected Parrot server and use remote caching for responses.

There are several ways to manage keys for language models:

  • Manage keys at your Coop account (this method is in development)

  • Store keys in a .env file on your computer (recommended)

  • Store keys directly in your EDSL code (not recommended for security reasons)

See the Managing Keys section for details on these methods.

4. Choose where to run surveys

You can use EDSL to run surveys locally on your own machine or remotely at the Expected Parrot server. To activate remote inference, navigate to the Settings page of your account and toggle on remote inference.

See the Remote Inference and Remote Caching sections for details on using remote inference and caching in your workflows.

To run surveys locally you must provide your own keys from service providers. See the Managing Keys section for instructions on storing keys.

5. Run a survey

Read the Starter Tutorial and download a notebook to create a survey and run it. See examples for many other use cases and tips on using EDSL effectively in the documentation.

Support

If you have any questions or need help, please send a message to info@expectedparrot.com. You can also open at issue at GitHub to report bugs or request new features.

Please also join our Discord channel to ask questions and chat with other users!