[QUESTION] Why is it OpenAIResponseClient rather than OpenAIResponsesClient?

[stephentoub]

How can we help?

The namespace is "Responses" and OpenAI calls the API the "Responses API". Why is the client for it the singular "OpenAIResponseClient" rather than the plural "OpenAIResponsesClient"?

[jsquire]

@KrzysztofCwalina: This inquiry falls into your purview.

[KrzysztofCwalina]

Yeah, this is something that is on @joseharriaga todo list. These APIs are still experimental and @joseharriaga was planning to do a naming cleaned as we prepare to make it not experimental

[jsquire]

Outstanding work tracked by #548.

[joseharriaga]

Note that using singular vs. plural is already a bit of pre-established pattern in stable APIs. For example:

• ImageClient instead of ImagesClient.
• EmbeddingClient instead of EmbeddingsClient
• BatchClient instead of BatchesClient
• etc.

In that sense, using "Responses" (plural) will unfortunately break away from this pattern. On the other hand, we are hoping it will help disambiguate between "response" as a general concept (e.g. "a response from the service") and "Responses" as in "OpenAI's Responses API". For example, today we have ResponseItem, which refers to "an input or output item used in OpenAI's Responses API", but unfortunately it also sounds like "an item you get in a service response (i.e., an output, not an input)". So we are hoping that renaming it to "ResponsesItem" could help a little bit to clear up the confusion...

I'm interested in hearing other suggestions too. 🙂

[stephentoub]

Note that using singular vs. plural is already a bit of pre-established pattern in stable APIs

Yes, but to your point, whereas "Images" is a pluralized version of "Image" and "Batches" is a pluralized version of "Batch", "Responses" is not the pluralized version of "response", in that the former is actually the name of the API and the latter is a generic synonym for result/output. 100% agree it should be "ResponsesItem" rather than "ResponseItem", as it's not an "item" from a "response", it's an "item" from the "Responses API". Similarly, OpenAIResponseClient isn't a general client for creating an arbitrary response, it's a client for the "Responses" API.

My $.02. Ultimately whatever you decide will be fine, the current naming just triggers me every time I see it 😄

[jsquire]

There has been no discussion or follow-up questions for more than a week and the associated rename is being tracked by #548. Closing this out.