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fix: accept reasoning-only responses without retries — set content to "(empty)" (#5278)

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* feat: coerce tool call arguments to match JSON Schema types

LLMs frequently return numbers as strings ("42" instead of 42) and
booleans as strings ("true" instead of true). This causes silent
failures with MCP tools and any tool with strictly-typed parameters.

Added coerce_tool_args() in model_tools.py that runs before every tool
dispatch. For each argument, it checks the tool registry schema and
attempts safe coercion:
  - "42" → 42 when schema says "type": "integer"
  - "3.14" → 3.14 when schema says "type": "number"
  - "true"/"false" → True/False when schema says "type": "boolean"
  - Union types tried in order
  - Original values preserved when coercion fails or is not applicable

Inspired by Block/goose tool argument coercion system.

* fix: accept reasoning-only responses without retries — set content to "(empty)"

Previously, when a model returned reasoning/thinking but no visible
content, we entered a 120-line retry/classify/compress/salvage cascade
that wasted 3+ API calls trying to "fix" the response. The model was
done thinking — retrying with the same input just burned money.

Now reasoning-only responses are accepted immediately:
- Reasoning stays in the `reasoning` field (semantically correct)
- Content set to "(empty)" — valid non-empty string every provider accepts
- No retries, no compression triggers, no salvage logic
- Session history contains "(empty)" not "" — prevents #2128 session
  poisoning where empty assistant content caused prefill rejections

Removes ~120 lines, adds ~15. Saves 2-3 API calls per reasoning-only
response. Fixes #2128.
This commit is contained in:
Teknium
2026-04-05 11:30:52 -07:00
committed by GitHub
parent 534511bebb
commit a0a1b86c2e
2 changed files with 38 additions and 160 deletions
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56
tests/test_run_agent.py
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@@ -1488,19 +1488,14 @@ class TestRunConversation:
assert result["completed"] is True
assert result["api_calls"] == 2
def test_empty_content_retry_uses_inline_reasoning_as_response(self, agent):
"""Reasoning-only payloads should recover the inline reasoning text."""
def test_inline_think_blocks_reasoning_only_accepted(self, agent):
"""Inline <think> reasoning-only responses accepted with (empty) content, no retries."""
self._setup_agent(agent)
empty_resp = _mock_response(
content="<think>internal reasoning</think>",
finish_reason="stop",
)
# Return empty 3 times to exhaust retries
agent.client.chat.completions.create.side_effect = [
empty_resp,
empty_resp,
empty_resp,
]
agent.client.chat.completions.create.side_effect = [empty_resp]
with (
patch.object(agent, "_persist_session"),
patch.object(agent, "_save_trajectory"),
@@ -1508,10 +1503,14 @@ class TestRunConversation:
):
result = agent.run_conversation("answer me")
assert result["completed"] is True
assert result["final_response"] == "internal reasoning"
assert result["final_response"] == "(empty)"
assert result["api_calls"] == 1 # no retries
# Reasoning should be preserved in the assistant message
assistant_msgs = [m for m in result["messages"] if m.get("role") == "assistant"]
assert any(m.get("reasoning") for m in assistant_msgs)
def test_empty_content_local_resumed_session_triggers_compression(self, agent):
"""Local resumed reasoning-only responses should compress before burning retries."""
def test_reasoning_only_local_resumed_no_compression_triggered(self, agent):
"""Reasoning-only responses no longer trigger compression — accepted immediately."""
self._setup_agent(agent)
agent.base_url = "http://127.0.0.1:1234/v1"
agent.compression_enabled = True
@@ -1520,39 +1519,34 @@ class TestRunConversation:
finish_reason="stop",
reasoning_content="reasoning only",
)
ok_resp = _mock_response(content="Recovered after compression", finish_reason="stop")
prefill = [
{"role": "user", "content": "old question"},
{"role": "assistant", "content": "old answer"},
]
with (
patch.object(agent, "_interruptible_api_call", side_effect=[empty_resp, ok_resp]),
patch.object(agent, "_interruptible_api_call", side_effect=[empty_resp]),
patch.object(agent, "_compress_context") as mock_compress,
patch.object(agent, "_persist_session"),
patch.object(agent, "_save_trajectory"),
patch.object(agent, "_cleanup_task_resources"),
):
mock_compress.return_value = (
[{"role": "user", "content": "compressed user message"}],
"compressed system prompt",
)
result = agent.run_conversation("hello", conversation_history=prefill)
mock_compress.assert_called_once()
mock_compress.assert_not_called() # no compression triggered
assert result["completed"] is True
assert result["final_response"] == "Recovered after compression"
assert result["api_calls"] == 1 # compression retry is refunded, same as explicit overflow path
assert result["final_response"] == "(empty)"
assert result["api_calls"] == 1
def test_empty_content_repeated_structured_reasoning_salvages_early(self, agent):
"""Repeated identical structured reasoning-only responses should stop retrying early."""
def test_reasoning_only_response_accepted_without_retry(self, agent):
"""Reasoning-only response should be accepted with (empty) content, no retries."""
self._setup_agent(agent)
empty_resp = _mock_response(
content=None,
finish_reason="stop",
reasoning_content="structured reasoning answer",
)
agent.client.chat.completions.create.side_effect = [empty_resp, empty_resp]
agent.client.chat.completions.create.side_effect = [empty_resp]
with (
patch.object(agent, "_persist_session"),
patch.object(agent, "_save_trajectory"),
@@ -1560,24 +1554,24 @@ class TestRunConversation:
):
result = agent.run_conversation("answer me")
assert result["completed"] is True
assert result["final_response"] == "structured reasoning answer"
assert result["api_calls"] == 2
assert result["final_response"] == "(empty)"
assert result["api_calls"] == 1 # no retries
def test_empty_content_local_custom_error_is_actionable(self, agent):
"""Local/custom retries should return a diagnostic tailored to context/endpoint mismatch."""
def test_truly_empty_response_accepted_without_retry(self, agent):
"""Truly empty response (no content, no reasoning) should still complete with (empty)."""
self._setup_agent(agent)
agent.base_url = "http://127.0.0.1:1234/v1"
empty_resp = _mock_response(content=None, finish_reason="stop")
agent.client.chat.completions.create.side_effect = [empty_resp, empty_resp, empty_resp]
agent.client.chat.completions.create.side_effect = [empty_resp]
with (
patch.object(agent, "_persist_session"),
patch.object(agent, "_save_trajectory"),
patch.object(agent, "_cleanup_task_resources"),
):
result = agent.run_conversation("answer me")
assert result["completed"] is False
assert "Local/custom backend returned reasoning-only output" in result["error"]
assert "wrong /v1 endpoint" in result["error"]
assert result["completed"] is True
assert result["final_response"] == "(empty)"
assert result["api_calls"] == 1 # no retries
def test_nous_401_refreshes_after_remint_and_retries(self, agent):
self._setup_agent(agent)