Files
strix/tests/test_respond_to_user.py
58df71d3db fix(agents): let an agent wait on what it already said (#1020)
* let an agent wait on what it already said

An agent that answers in plain text is nudged to call a tool, and the only tool
that hands control back takes a required message. So it says the same thing
twice: once as text the user has already read, once as the argument it had to
supply to stop. Seen on a run whose whole instruction was "hi" - a greeting, then
the same greeting again through respond_to_user.

message is optional now. The nudge arms the tool with the text that was
delivered and says not to repeat it, so an agent that has said its piece can park
on it with an empty call. Anything it does want to add it passes normally.

Parking still cannot leave the user on silence: an empty call is refused unless
something was actually said, and the arming is single use - execution clears it
as soon as a turn ends any other way.

The interactive prompt now also says to answer and stop in one respond_to_user
call, which is what avoids the nudge in the first place.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* drop the worked example from the interactive prompt

"the user greeted you, asked something you can answer outright, or you need a
decision" was the run I had been reading, written into a rule that holds
whatever the reason. The rule is that replying and stopping is one call; listing
occasions only invites the model to check whether this is one of them.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* drop the arming flag; an empty message just waits

Passing the delivered text from execution into the tool, and refusing an empty
call without it, was machinery guarding against an agent parking having said
nothing. That leaves the user looking at "waiting for your reply" with a cursor
in front of them - they type. It does not need a mechanism.

What is left is the default on message, and the nudge saying the text already
landed.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* only offer waiting on words that were written

The nudge told every agent its text had already been delivered, but it fires
whenever a turn leaves the agent running, and a turn can end with no tool call
and no text at all - _final_output_preview has carried <none> and <empty>
branches all along. An agent that said nothing was being invited to wait on an
answer the user never received, leaving them at a bare prompt.

It now reads the turn: waiting on what was said is offered only when something
was, and otherwise the agent is told plainly that the user has read nothing and
to send its message.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* leave the continuation nudge alone

Rewording it meant asserting from the outside whether the agent had spoken, and
the nudge fires whenever a turn leaves the agent running - text or no text. The
agent knows which it did without being told, so the guidance belongs in its
prompt, where the condition is its own to read.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* say it in the nudge, where the agent is reading

An agent stranded by the nudge reasons off the nudge. Told only to call
respond_to_user, it supplies a message, and since it has just answered in plain
text that message is the same answer again. The system prompt saying otherwise
sits thousands of tokens earlier and loses.

The clause goes on the line the agent acts on: call respond_to_user, with no
message if it has already said it. That reads true whatever the turn did,
including one that produced no text, because the agent is the one who knows
which — nothing here has to work it out from the outside.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-09 00:57:16 +03:00

95 lines
3.1 KiB
Python

"""Tests for the ``respond_to_user`` yield tool."""
from __future__ import annotations
import json
from typing import Any
import pytest
from agents.tool_context import ToolContext
from strix.core.agents import AgentCoordinator
from strix.tools.respond.tool import respond_to_user
async def _call(context: dict[str, Any], message: str = "here is what I found") -> dict[str, Any]:
ctx = ToolContext(
context=context,
tool_name="respond_to_user",
tool_call_id="call-1",
tool_arguments="{}",
)
raw = await respond_to_user.on_invoke_tool(ctx, json.dumps({"message": message}))
return json.loads(raw) # type: ignore[no-any-return]
async def _context(*, interactive: bool, agent_id: str = "root") -> dict[str, Any]:
coordinator = AgentCoordinator()
await coordinator.register("root", "strix", parent_id=None)
return {"coordinator": coordinator, "agent_id": agent_id, "interactive": interactive}
@pytest.mark.asyncio
async def test_parks_the_agent_and_carries_the_message() -> None:
context = await _context(interactive=True)
result = await _call(context)
coordinator = context["coordinator"]
assert result["success"] is True
assert result["wait_outcome"] == "waiting"
assert result["message"] == "here is what I found"
assert coordinator.statuses["root"] == "waiting"
# Recorded as a human wait, so the driver never auto-resumes it.
assert coordinator.wait_kinds["root"] == "user"
@pytest.mark.asyncio
async def test_rejected_in_an_autonomous_run() -> None:
context = await _context(interactive=False)
result = await _call(context)
assert result["success"] is False
assert "finish_scan" in result["error"]
assert context["coordinator"].statuses["root"] == "running"
@pytest.mark.asyncio
async def test_a_message_that_already_arrived_is_taken_instead_of_parking() -> None:
context = await _context(interactive=True)
coordinator = context["coordinator"]
await coordinator.send("root", {"from": "user", "content": "wait, one more thing"})
result = await _call(context)
assert result["wait_outcome"] == "message_arrived"
assert result["pending_messages"] == 1
assert coordinator.statuses["root"] == "running"
async def _call_without_message(context: dict[str, Any]) -> dict[str, Any]:
ctx = ToolContext(
context=context,
tool_name="respond_to_user",
tool_call_id="call-1",
tool_arguments="{}",
)
raw = await respond_to_user.on_invoke_tool(ctx, "{}")
return json.loads(raw) # type: ignore[no-any-return]
@pytest.mark.asyncio
async def test_parks_without_a_message() -> None:
"""An agent that has already said its piece as plain text can just wait.
The nudge is what leaves it here, and while a message was required the only
way to stop was to send the same answer a second time.
"""
context = await _context(interactive=True)
result = await _call_without_message(context)
assert result["success"] is True
assert result["wait_outcome"] == "waiting"
assert result["message"] == ""
assert context["coordinator"].statuses["root"] == "waiting"