Setup Instructions

Your Setup Roadmap

1

Python Check

Verify Python 3.9+

1-2 min

2

Project Setup

Create directory

1 min

3

Virtual Env

Isolate dependencies

2-3 min

4

Installation

Install DSPy

2-5 min

5

API Config

Set up keys

3-5 min

6

Testing

Verify setup

2-3 min

✓

Ready!

Start learning

Step 1: Verify Python Installation

Open your terminal and run:

python3 --version

Expected outputs (any of these is good):

Python 3.9.0 ✅ Minimum required Python 3.10.8 ✅ Good choice Python 3.11.5 ✅ Latest stable Python 3.12.0 ✅ Cutting edge

💡

Pro Tip: If python3 doesn't work, try python. Different systems use different commands.

Need to Install/Upgrade Python?

🪟 Windows Python Installer

🍎 macOS brew install python

🐧 Linux sudo apt install python3.11

Step 2: Create Your Project Directory

🍎🐧 macOS / Linux

🪟 Windows CMD

🪟 PowerShell

# Create the directory
mkdir ~/dspy-learning

# Navigate into it
cd ~/dspy-learning

# Verify location
pwd

🎯

Success: You should see your DSPy project directory path!

Step 3: Set Up Virtual Environment

Why Virtual Environments?

📦 Isolate Dependencies

🛡️ Avoid Conflicts

🧹 Clean Management

Create the environment:

python3 -m venv venv

Activate the Environment

macOS / Linux source venv/bin/activate

Windows (CMD) venv\Scripts\activate

Windows (PowerShell) venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

Verify activation: Your prompt should now show (venv) at the beginning!

🚨

Important: Always activate your virtual environment before working on DSPy projects!

Step 4: Install DSPy and Dependencies

1. Start with fresh pip:

pip install --upgrade pip

2. Install DSPy core:

pip install dspy-ai

What you get:

✅ DSPy framework
✅ Core dependencies
✅ Language model adapters

3. Verify installation:

python3 -c "import dspy; print(f'DSPy version: {dspy.__version__}')"

DSPy version: 2.5.x

4. Install additional dependencies:

pip install openai anthropic python-dotenv

openai OpenAI API client

anthropic Claude API client

python-dotenv Environment variable management

Step 5: Configure API Access

Recommended 💳 OpenAI

🤖 Claude

Free 🏠 Local

Getting Your OpenAI API Key

Visit: platform.openai.com
Sign up or log in
Navigate to API Keys section
Create new secret key
Copy your key (starts with sk-)

Add to your .env file:

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-actual-api-key-here

Create a .env file:

touch .env

🚨

Security Warning: Never commit API keys to Git or share them publicly!

Step 6: Test Your Setup

🧪

The Moment of Truth!

Create test_setup.py:

"""
✨ DSPy Setup Verification Script ✨
Tests your installation and API connectivity
"""

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import dspy

# Load environment variables
load_dotenv()

def test_setup():
    print("🚀 DSPy Setup Verification")
    print("=" * 50)
    
    # Check DSPy
    print(f"✅ DSPy version: {dspy.__version__}")
    
    # Check API key
    api_key = os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")
    if api_key:
        print("✅ OpenAI API key found")
        
        # Configure and test
        lm = dspy.LM(
            model="openai/gpt-4o-mini",
            api_key=api_key
        )
        dspy.configure(lm=lm)
        
        # Simple test
        class SimpleQA(dspy.Signature):
            question: str = dspy.InputField()
            answer: str = dspy.OutputField()
        
        predictor = dspy.Predict(SimpleQA)
        result = predictor(question="What is 2 + 2?")
        
        print(f"✅ API Test: 2 + 2 = {result.answer}")
        print("=" * 50)
        print("🎉 SUCCESS! Your DSPy environment is ready!")
    else:
        print("⚠️ No API key found. Add to .env file.")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    test_setup()

Run the test:

python3 test_setup.py

Expected Successful Output:

🚀 DSPy Setup Verification
==================================================
✅ DSPy version: 2.5.x
✅ OpenAI API key found
✅ API Test: 2 + 2 = 4
==================================================
🎉 SUCCESS! Your DSPy environment is ready!

Troubleshooting Common Issues

"No module named 'dspy'" Activate venv: source venv/bin/activate

"API key not found" Create .env file with your key

"Invalid API key" Verify key in provider dashboard

Step 7: Get Book Examples (Optional)

Clone the book repository:

# Go to your learning directory
cd ~/dspy-learning

# Clone the book repository
git clone https://github.com/dustinober1/Ebook_DSPy.git

# Enter the directory
cd Ebook_DSPy

# Install all dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

Repository Structure

Ebook_DSPy/
├── examples/          📁 All code examples by chapter
│   ├── chapter01/
│   ├── chapter02/
│   └── ...
├── exercises/         ✏️ Exercise starter code & solutions
├── assets/           📊 Datasets and resources
└── scripts/          🛠️ Utility scripts

📋 Quick Reference Card

Activate venv source venv/bin/activate

Deactivate venv deactivate

Install package pip install package-name

Run Python script python3 script.py

Check DSPy version python3 -c "import dspy; print(dspy.__version__)"

🎉

Congratulations!

Your DSPy environment is ready. You can now start Chapter 1!

Start Chapter 1: Large Language Models

🚀 Setup Instructions