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Main Authors: Alidu, Abubakari, Ciavotta, Michele, DePaoli, Flavio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13487
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author Alidu, Abubakari
Ciavotta, Michele
DePaoli, Flavio
author_facet Alidu, Abubakari
Ciavotta, Michele
DePaoli, Flavio
contents Developing reliable data enrichment pipelines demands significant engineering expertise. We present Prompt2DAG, a methodology that transforms natural language descriptions into executable Apache Airflow DAGs. We evaluate four generation approaches -- Direct, LLM-only, Hybrid, and Template-based -- across 260 experiments using thirteen LLMs and five case studies to identify optimal strategies for production-grade automation. Performance is measured using a penalized scoring framework that combines reliability with code quality (SAT), structural integrity (DST), and executability (PCT). The Hybrid approach emerges as the optimal generative method, achieving a 78.5% success rate with robust quality scores (SAT: 6.79, DST: 7.67, PCT: 7.76). This significantly outperforms the LLM-only (66.2% success) and Direct (29.2% success) methods. Our findings show that reliability, not intrinsic code quality, is the primary differentiator. Cost-effectiveness analysis reveals the Hybrid method is over twice as efficient as Direct prompting per successful DAG. We conclude that a structured, hybrid approach is essential for balancing flexibility and reliability in automated workflow generation, offering a viable path to democratize data pipeline development.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_13487
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Prompt2DAG: A Modular Methodology for LLM-Based Data Enrichment Pipeline Generation
Alidu, Abubakari
Ciavotta, Michele
DePaoli, Flavio
Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
Developing reliable data enrichment pipelines demands significant engineering expertise. We present Prompt2DAG, a methodology that transforms natural language descriptions into executable Apache Airflow DAGs. We evaluate four generation approaches -- Direct, LLM-only, Hybrid, and Template-based -- across 260 experiments using thirteen LLMs and five case studies to identify optimal strategies for production-grade automation. Performance is measured using a penalized scoring framework that combines reliability with code quality (SAT), structural integrity (DST), and executability (PCT). The Hybrid approach emerges as the optimal generative method, achieving a 78.5% success rate with robust quality scores (SAT: 6.79, DST: 7.67, PCT: 7.76). This significantly outperforms the LLM-only (66.2% success) and Direct (29.2% success) methods. Our findings show that reliability, not intrinsic code quality, is the primary differentiator. Cost-effectiveness analysis reveals the Hybrid method is over twice as efficient as Direct prompting per successful DAG. We conclude that a structured, hybrid approach is essential for balancing flexibility and reliability in automated workflow generation, offering a viable path to democratize data pipeline development.
title Prompt2DAG: A Modular Methodology for LLM-Based Data Enrichment Pipeline Generation
topic Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13487