DreamLog: Logic Programming with Wake-Sleep Cycles

A reasoning engine that dreams to improve itself, inspired by how the brain consolidates knowledge during sleep.

What is DreamLog?

DreamLog is a revolutionary logic programming language that implements wake-sleep cycles for continuous self-improvement. Like the human brain during REM sleep, DreamLog alternates between:

• 🌞 Wake Phase: Exploiting existing knowledge to answer queries efficiently
• 🌙 Sleep Phase: Exploring new abstractions, compressions, and generalizations through “dreaming”

Inspired by DreamCoder and neuroscience, DreamLog discovers general principles through compression—following the insight that simpler explanations covering more cases are likely more true.

Key Innovation: Dreaming for Optimization

from dreamlog.pythonic import dreamlog
from dreamlog.kb_dreamer import KnowledgeBaseDreamer

# Wake phase: Use knowledge
kb = dreamlog(llm_provider="openai")
kb.fact("parent", "john", "mary")
kb.fact("parent", "mary", "alice")

# Sleep phase: Dream to optimize
dreamer = KnowledgeBaseDreamer(kb.provider)
session = dreamer.dream(
    kb, 
    dream_cycles=3,           # Multiple REM cycles
    exploration_samples=10,    # Explore different optimizations
    verify=True               # Ensure behavior preservation
)

print(f"Compression achieved: {session.compression_ratio:.1%}")
print(f"Generalization score: {session.generalization_score:.2f}")

Features

🧠 Self-Improving Knowledge Base

• Automatically discovers abstractions and patterns
• Compresses redundant rules into general principles
• Verifies that optimizations preserve behavior

🤖 LLM-Powered Learning

• Generates missing knowledge when needed (both facts and rules)
• Uses world knowledge to infer primitive properties (e.g., gender from names)
• Context-aware generation based on existing facts
• Multiple provider support (OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama)

🎯 Modern Python Integration

kb = dreamlog()
kb.fact("likes", "alice", "bob") \
  .fact("likes", "bob", "alice") \
  .rule("friends", ["X", "Y"]) \
  .when("likes", ["X", "Y"]) \
  .and_("likes", ["Y", "X"])

for result in kb.query("friends", "X", "Y"):
    print(f"{result.bindings['X']} and {result.bindings['Y']} are friends")

🔄 Wake-Sleep Architecture

• Exploitation: Fast query answering during wake
• Exploration: Creative reorganization during sleep
• Verification: Ensures improvements don’t break existing behavior

Installation

pip install dreamlog

Quick Start

from dreamlog.pythonic import dreamlog

# Create a knowledge base
kb = dreamlog()

# Add facts using S-expressions
kb.parse("""
(parent john mary)
(parent mary alice)
(parent bob charlie)
""")

# Add rules
kb.parse("""
(grandparent X Z) :- (parent X Y), (parent Y Z)
""")

# Query
for result in kb.query("grandparent", "X", "alice"):
    print(f"{result.bindings['X']} is Alice's grandparent")

# Enable LLM for undefined predicates
kb_with_llm = dreamlog(llm_provider="ollama")
# Now queries for undefined predicates will generate knowledge automatically
# The LLM infers both facts (e.g., male(john) from names) and rules (e.g., father(X,Y) :- parent(X,Y), male(X))

The Philosophy

DreamLog embodies the principle that intelligence emerges from the interplay of exploration and exploitation:

1. Consolidation: Strengthen important patterns
2. Abstraction: Find general principles
3. Compression: Achieve more with less
4. Creativity: Explore novel reorganizations

This isn’t just logic programming with LLMs bolted on—it’s a fundamentally new paradigm where the system’s knowledge representation evolves through use.

Documentation

See the full documentation for:

• Getting Started Guide
• Tutorial
• S-Expression Syntax
• Wake-Sleep Cycles
• API Reference

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Citation

If you use DreamLog in your research, please cite:

@software{dreamlog2025,
  title = {DreamLog: Logic Programming with Wake-Sleep Cycles},
  author = {queelius},
  year = {2025},
  url = {https://github.com/queelius/dreamlog}
}

Built by dreamers who believe reasoning systems should sleep, perchance to dream