diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index ab5d57a..58ea07e 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 # ollamar (development version)
 
+- `generate()` and `chat()` support [structured output](https://ollama.com/blog/structured-outputs) via `format` parameter.
+- `test_connection()` returns boolean instead of `httr2` object. #29
+- `chat()` supports [tool calling](https://ollama.com/blog/tool-support) via `tools` parameter. Added `get_tool_calls()` helper function to process tools. #30
+- Simplify README and add Get started vignette with more examples.
+
 # ollamar 1.2.1
 
 - `generate()` and `chat()` accept multiple images as prompts/messages.
diff --git a/R/ollama.R b/R/ollama.R
index 2c78bd6..77d8045 100644
--- a/R/ollama.R
+++ b/R/ollama.R
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ create_request <- function(endpoint, host = NULL) {
 #' @param prompt A character string of the prompt like "The sky is..."
 #' @param suffix A character string after the model response. Default is "".
 #' @param images A path to an image file to include in the prompt. Default is "".
+#' @param format Format to return a response in. Format can be json/list (structured response).
 #' @param system A character string of the system prompt (overrides what is defined in the Modelfile). Default is "".
 #' @param template A character string of the prompt template (overrides what is defined in the Modelfile). Default is "".
 #' @param context A list of context from a previous response to include previous conversation in the prompt. Default is an empty list.
@@ -86,10 +87,10 @@ create_request <- function(endpoint, host = NULL) {
 #' image_path <- file.path(system.file("extdata", package = "ollamar"), "image1.png")
 #' # use vision or multimodal model such as https://ollama.com/benzie/llava-phi-3
 #' generate("benzie/llava-phi-3:latest", "What is in the image?", images = image_path, output = "text")
-generate <- function(model, prompt, suffix = "", images = "", system = "", template = "", context = list(), stream = FALSE, raw = FALSE, keep_alive = "5m", output = c("resp", "jsonlist", "raw", "df", "text", "req"), endpoint = "/api/generate", host = NULL, ...) {
+generate <- function(model, prompt, suffix = "", images = "", format = list(), system = "", template = "", context = list(), stream = FALSE, raw = FALSE, keep_alive = "5m", output = c("resp", "jsonlist", "raw", "df", "text", "req", "structured"), endpoint = "/api/generate", host = NULL, ...) {
     output <- output[1]
-    if (!output %in% c("df", "resp", "jsonlist", "raw", "text", "req")) {
-        stop("Invalid output format specified. Supported formats: 'df', 'resp', 'jsonlist', 'raw', 'text', 'req'")
+    if (!output %in% c("df", "resp", "jsonlist", "raw", "text", "req", "structured")) {
+        stop("Invalid output format specified. Supported formats: 'df', 'resp', 'jsonlist', 'raw', 'text', 'req', 'structured'")
     }
 
     req <- create_request(endpoint, host)
@@ -112,6 +113,10 @@ generate <- function(model, prompt, suffix = "", images = "", system = "", templ
         keep_alive = keep_alive
     )
 
+    if (length(format) != 0 & inherits(format, "list")) {
+        body_json$format <- format
+    }
+
     # check if model options are passed and specified correctly
     opts <- list(...)
     if (length(opts) > 0) {
@@ -169,8 +174,9 @@ generate <- function(model, prompt, suffix = "", images = "", system = "", templ
 #' @param messages A list with list of messages for the model (see examples below).
 #' @param tools Tools for the model to use if supported. Requires stream = FALSE. Default is an empty list.
 #' @param stream Enable response streaming. Default is FALSE.
+#' @param format Format to return a response in. Format can be json/list (structured response).
 #' @param keep_alive The duration to keep the connection alive. Default is "5m".
-#' @param output The output format. Default is "resp". Other options are "jsonlist", "raw", "df", "text", "req" (httr2_request object), "tools" (tool calling)
+#' @param output The output format. Default is "resp". Other options are "jsonlist", "raw", "df", "text", "req" (httr2_request object), "tools" (tool calling), "structured" (structured output)
 #' @param endpoint The endpoint to chat with the model. Default is "/api/chat".
 #' @param host The base URL to use. Default is NULL, which uses Ollama's default base URL.
 #' @param ... Additional options to pass to the model.
@@ -208,10 +214,10 @@ generate <- function(model, prompt, suffix = "", images = "", system = "", templ
 #'    list(role = "user", content = "What is in the image?", images = image_path)
 #' )
 #' chat("benzie/llava-phi-3", messages, output = 'text')
-chat <- function(model, messages, tools = list(), stream = FALSE, keep_alive = "5m", output = c("resp", "jsonlist", "raw", "df", "text", "req", "tools"), endpoint = "/api/chat", host = NULL, ...) {
+chat <- function(model, messages, tools = list(), stream = FALSE, format = list(), keep_alive = "5m", output = c("resp", "jsonlist", "raw", "df", "text", "req", "tools", "structured"), endpoint = "/api/chat", host = NULL, ...) {
     output <- output[1]
-    if (!output %in% c("df", "resp", "jsonlist", "raw", "text", "req", "tools")) {
-        stop("Invalid output format specified. Supported formats: 'df', 'resp', 'jsonlist', 'raw', 'text'")
+    if (!output %in% c("df", "resp", "jsonlist", "raw", "text", "req", "tools", "structured")) {
+        stop("Invalid output format specified. Supported formats: 'df', 'resp', 'jsonlist', 'raw', 'text', 'tools', 'structured'")
     }
 
     req <- create_request(endpoint, host)
@@ -231,6 +237,10 @@ chat <- function(model, messages, tools = list(), stream = FALSE, keep_alive = "
         keep_alive = keep_alive
     )
 
+    if (length(format) != 0 & inherits(format, "list")) {
+        body_json$format <- format
+    }
+
     opts <- list(...)
     if (length(opts) > 0) {
         if (validate_options(...)) {
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 23e30ff..d7898ab 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ get_tool_calls <- function(resp) {
 #' Process httr2 response object
 #'
 #' @param resp A httr2 response object.
-#' @param output The output format. Default is "df". Other options are "jsonlist", "raw", "resp" (httr2 response object), "text", "tools" (tool_calls)
+#' @param output The output format. Default is "df". Other options are "jsonlist", "raw", "resp" (httr2 response object), "text", "tools" (tool_calls), "structured" (structured output).
 #'
 #' @return A data frame, json list, raw or httr2 response object.
 #' @export
@@ -122,7 +122,6 @@ get_tool_calls <- function(resp) {
 #' resp_process(resp, "df") # parse response to dataframe/tibble
 #' resp_process(resp, "jsonlist") # parse response to list
 #' resp_process(resp, "raw") # parse response to raw string
-#' resp_process(resp, "resp") # return input response object
 #' resp_process(resp, "text") # return text/character vector
 #' resp_process(resp, "tools") # return tool_calls
 resp_process <- function(resp, output = c("df", "jsonlist", "raw", "resp", "text", "tools")) {
@@ -195,6 +194,8 @@ resp_process <- function(resp, output = c("df", "jsonlist", "raw", "resp", "text
             return(df_response)
         } else if (output == "text") {
             return(df_response$response)
+        } else if (output == "structured") {
+            return(jsonlite::fromJSON(df_response$response))
         }
     } else if (grepl("api/chat", resp$url)) { # process chat endpoint
         json_body <- httr2::resp_body_json(resp)
@@ -209,6 +210,8 @@ resp_process <- function(resp, output = c("df", "jsonlist", "raw", "resp", "text
             return(df_response)
         } else if (output == "text") {
             return(df_response$content)
+        } else if (output == "structured") {
+            return(jsonlite::fromJSON(df_response$content))
         }
     } else if (grepl("api/tags", resp$url)) { # process tags endpoint
         json_body <- httr2::resp_body_json(resp)[[1]]
diff --git a/README.Rmd b/README.Rmd
index 32b45de..6659116 100644
--- a/README.Rmd
+++ b/README.Rmd
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ The library also makes it easy to work with data structures (e.g., conversationa
 
 To use this R library, ensure the [Ollama](https://ollama.com) app is installed. Ollama can use GPUs for accelerating LLM inference. See [Ollama GPU documentation](https://github.com/ollama/ollama/blob/main/docs/gpu.md) for more information.
 
-See [Ollama's Github page](https://github.com/ollama/ollama) for more information. This library uses the [Ollama REST API (see documentation for details)](https://github.com/ollama/ollama/blob/main/docs/api.md) and has been tested on Ollama v0.1.30 and above. It was last tested on Ollama v0.3.10.
+See [Ollama's Github page](https://github.com/ollama/ollama) for more information. This library uses the [Ollama REST API (see documentation for details)](https://github.com/ollama/ollama/blob/main/docs/api.md) and was last tested on v0.5.4.
 
 > Note: You should have at least 8 GB of RAM available to run the 7B models, 16 GB to run the 13B models, and 32 GB to run the 33B models.
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 069e9c7..a0b9b28 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -31,8 +31,7 @@ for more information.
 See [Ollama’s Github page](https://github.com/ollama/ollama) for more
 information. This library uses the [Ollama REST API (see documentation
 for details)](https://github.com/ollama/ollama/blob/main/docs/api.md)
-and has been tested on Ollama v0.1.30 and above. It was last tested on
-Ollama v0.3.10.
+and was last tested on v0.5.4.
 
 > Note: You should have at least 8 GB of RAM available to run the 7B
 > models, 16 GB to run the 13B models, and 32 GB to run the 33B models.
diff --git a/man/chat.Rd b/man/chat.Rd
index a58412d..8cb96a8 100644
--- a/man/chat.Rd
+++ b/man/chat.Rd
@@ -9,8 +9,9 @@ chat(
   messages,
   tools = list(),
   stream = FALSE,
+  format = list(),
   keep_alive = "5m",
-  output = c("resp", "jsonlist", "raw", "df", "text", "req", "tools"),
+  output = c("resp", "jsonlist", "raw", "df", "text", "req", "tools", "structured"),
   endpoint = "/api/chat",
   host = NULL,
   ...
@@ -25,9 +26,11 @@ chat(
 
 \item{stream}{Enable response streaming. Default is FALSE.}
 
+\item{format}{Format to return a response in. Format can be json/list (structured response).}
+
 \item{keep_alive}{The duration to keep the connection alive. Default is "5m".}
 
-\item{output}{The output format. Default is "resp". Other options are "jsonlist", "raw", "df", "text", "req" (httr2_request object), "tools" (tool calling)}
+\item{output}{The output format. Default is "resp". Other options are "jsonlist", "raw", "df", "text", "req" (httr2_request object), "tools" (tool calling), "structured" (structured output)}
 
 \item{endpoint}{The endpoint to chat with the model. Default is "/api/chat".}
 
diff --git a/man/generate.Rd b/man/generate.Rd
index 77c622c..7cc8e44 100644
--- a/man/generate.Rd
+++ b/man/generate.Rd
@@ -9,13 +9,14 @@ generate(
   prompt,
   suffix = "",
   images = "",
+  format = list(),
   system = "",
   template = "",
   context = list(),
   stream = FALSE,
   raw = FALSE,
   keep_alive = "5m",
-  output = c("resp", "jsonlist", "raw", "df", "text", "req"),
+  output = c("resp", "jsonlist", "raw", "df", "text", "req", "structured"),
   endpoint = "/api/generate",
   host = NULL,
   ...
@@ -30,6 +31,8 @@ generate(
 
 \item{images}{A path to an image file to include in the prompt. Default is "".}
 
+\item{format}{Format to return a response in. Format can be json/list (structured response).}
+
 \item{system}{A character string of the system prompt (overrides what is defined in the Modelfile). Default is "".}
 
 \item{template}{A character string of the prompt template (overrides what is defined in the Modelfile). Default is "".}
diff --git a/man/resp_process.Rd b/man/resp_process.Rd
index 11f9453..3f4fc27 100644
--- a/man/resp_process.Rd
+++ b/man/resp_process.Rd
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ resp_process(
 \arguments{
 \item{resp}{A httr2 response object.}
 
-\item{output}{The output format. Default is "df". Other options are "jsonlist", "raw", "resp" (httr2 response object), "text", "tools" (tool_calls)}
+\item{output}{The output format. Default is "df". Other options are "jsonlist", "raw", "resp" (httr2 response object), "text", "tools" (tool_calls), "structured" (structured output).}
 }
 \value{
 A data frame, json list, raw or httr2 response object.
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ resp <- list_models("resp")
 resp_process(resp, "df") # parse response to dataframe/tibble
 resp_process(resp, "jsonlist") # parse response to list
 resp_process(resp, "raw") # parse response to raw string
-resp_process(resp, "resp") # return input response object
 resp_process(resp, "text") # return text/character vector
 resp_process(resp, "tools") # return tool_calls
 \dontshow{\}) # examplesIf}
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-chat.R b/tests/testthat/test-chat.R
index 1ee1e34..208f18f 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-chat.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-chat.R
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ test_that("chat function handles images in messages", {
 })
 
 
-test_that("chat function handles tools", {
+test_that("chat function tool calling", {
     skip_if_not(test_connection(), "Ollama server not available")
 
     add_two_numbers <- function(x, y) {
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ test_that("chat function handles tools", {
 
 
     # test multiple tools
-    msg <- create_message("what is three plus one? then multiply the output of that by ten")
+    msg <- create_message("add three plus four. then multiply by ten")
     tools <- list(list(type = "function",
                        "function" = list(
                            name = "add_two_numbers",
@@ -234,3 +234,38 @@ test_that("chat function handles tools", {
     # expect_equal(resp[[2]]$name, "multiply_two_numbers")
 
 })
+
+
+
+
+test_that("structured output", {
+    skip_if_not(test_connection(), "Ollama server not available")
+
+    format <- list(
+        type = "object",
+        properties = list(
+            name = list(
+                type = "string"
+            ),
+            capital = list(
+                type = "string"
+            ),
+            languages = list(
+                type = "array",
+                items = list(
+                    type = "string"
+                )
+            )
+        ),
+        required = list("name", "capital", "languages")
+    )
+
+    msg <- create_message("tell me about canada")
+    resp <- chat("llama3.1", msg, format = format)
+    # content <- httr2::resp_body_json(resp)$message$content
+    structured_output <- resp_process(resp, "structured")
+    expect_equal(tolower(structured_output$name), "canada")
+
+})
+
+
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-generate.R b/tests/testthat/test-generate.R
index 0263830..aca5bcc 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-generate.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-generate.R
@@ -79,3 +79,37 @@ test_that("generate function works with images", {
 })
 
 
+
+
+
+test_that("structured output", {
+    skip_if_not(test_connection(), "Ollama server not available")
+
+    format <- list(
+        type = "object",
+        properties = list(
+            name = list(
+                type = "string"
+            ),
+            capital = list(
+                type = "string"
+            ),
+            languages = list(
+                type = "array",
+                items = list(
+                    type = "string"
+                )
+            )
+        ),
+        required = list("name", "capital", "languages")
+    )
+
+    msg <- "tell me about canada"
+    resp <- generate("llama3.1", prompt = msg, format = format)
+    # response <- httr2::resp_body_json(resp)$response
+    structured_output <- resp_process(resp, "structured")
+    expect_equal(tolower(structured_output$name), "canada")
+
+})
+
+
diff --git a/vignettes/ollamar.Rmd b/vignettes/ollamar.Rmd
index 8354e2e..f883924 100644
--- a/vignettes/ollamar.Rmd
+++ b/vignettes/ollamar.Rmd
@@ -362,6 +362,30 @@ do.call(resp[[1]]$name, resp[[1]]$arguments) # 7
 do.call(resp[[2]]$name, resp[[2]]$arguments) # 70
 ```
 
+### Structured outputs
+
+The `chat()` and `generate()` functions support [structured outputs](https://ollama.com/blog/structured-outputs), making it possible to constrain a model's output to a specified format defined by a JSON schema (R list). 
+
+```{r eval=FALSE} 
+# define a JSON schema as a list to constrain a model's output
+format <- list(
+  type = "object",
+  properties = list(
+    name = list(type = "string"),
+    capital = list(type = "string"),
+    languages = list(type = "array", 
+                     items = list(type = "string")
+                     )
+    ),
+  required = list("name", "capital", "languages")
+  )
+
+generate("llama3.1", "tell me about Canada", output = "structured", format = format)
+
+msg <- create_message("tell me about Canada")
+chat("llama3.1", msg, format = format, output = "structured")
+```
+
 ### Parallel requests
 
 For the `generate()` and `chat()` endpoints/functions, you can specify `output = 'req'` in the function so the functions return `httr2_request` objects instead of `httr2_response` objects.