fix: ensure assistant messages with tool_calls include content field by fl-sean03 · Pull Request #7076 · block/goose

fl-sean03 · 2026-02-08T21:40:20Z

Summary

Fixes #6717 — assistant messages missing content field when sending tool calls to certain OpenAI-compatible providers.

Some strict OpenAI-compatible providers (e.g., deepseek-chat, certain local inference servers) require the content field to be present on assistant messages even when only tool calls are being sent. When goose formats messages without text content alongside tool calls, the content field is omitted entirely, causing these providers to reject the request.

Changes

crates/goose/src/providers/formats/openai.rs: After constructing the converted message, check if an assistant message has tool_calls present but content is missing, and set content to null in that case.
Added two focused tests:
- test_format_messages_tool_calls_only_sets_content_null — verifies content: null is set when assistant has only tool_calls
- test_format_messages_tool_calls_with_text_keeps_content_string — ensures text content is preserved when both text and tool calls exist

Test Plan

New unit tests pass
Existing test suite unaffected
Manual test with a strict OpenAI-compatible provider (e.g., deepseek-chat)

Copilot

Pull request overview

Fixes OpenAI message formatting so assistant messages that contain tool_calls always include a content field (set to null when there’s no text), improving compatibility with stricter OpenAI-compatible providers.

Changes:

Ensure content: null is added when tool_calls are present but no content was produced.
Add unit test covering tool-calls-without-text case.
Add unit test ensuring tool-calls-with-text preserves string content.

Copilot · 2026-02-08T21:42:38Z

crates/goose/src/providers/formats/openai.rs

+        // Ensure assistant messages with tool_calls always have a content field.
+        // Some strict OpenAI-compatible providers require "content" to be present
+        // (even as null) when tool_calls are provided. See #6717.
+        if converted.get("tool_calls").is_some() && converted.get("content").is_none() {


The new guard claims to apply to “assistant messages”, but the condition doesn’t check the role; either restrict it to Role::Assistant or update the comment so it matches the actual behavior.

Suggested change

if converted.get("tool_calls").is_some() && converted.get("content").is_none() {

if message.role == Role::Assistant

&& converted.get("tool_calls").is_some()

&& converted.get("content").is_none()

{

Some strict OpenAI-compatible providers (e.g., TAMU AI API) require the `content` field to be present in assistant messages when `tool_calls` are provided, even if there is no text content. Previously, the `format_messages` function omitted `content` entirely when only tool calls were present, causing 400 Bad Request errors from these providers. Now sets `"content": null` on assistant messages that have tool_calls but no text content. Guard is scoped to Role::Assistant only per review feedback. Fixes block#6717 Signed-off-by: fl-sean03 <sean@opspawn.com> Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

katzdave

Nice fix!

katzdave · 2026-02-09T15:22:54Z

crates/goose/src/providers/formats/openai.rs

        Ok(())
    }

+    #[test]


Tests are all very long winded, can we delete?

katzdave · 2026-02-09T15:25:08Z

crates/goose/src/providers/formats/openai.rs

        }

+        // Ensure assistant messages with tool_calls always have a content field.
+        // Some strict OpenAI-compatible providers require "content" to be present


Let's just leave this line of this comment describing the reason for the code.

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Copilot · 2026-02-10T01:56:34Z

crates/goose/src/providers/formats/openai.rs

+        // Some strict OpenAI-compatible providers require "content" to be present
+        // (even as null) when tool_calls are provided. See #6717.
+        if message.role == Role::Assistant
+            && converted.get("tool_calls").is_some()
+            && converted.get("content").is_none()
+        {
+            converted["content"] = json!(null);
+        }


The PR description claims two new tests were added (test_format_messages_tool_calls_without_text_includes_content_null / ...with_text_keeps_content_string), but those tests don’t appear anywhere in the repo; either add them or update the description to match what’s actually included.

Fixed — PR description updated to match the actual test names. The original tests were deleted per @katzdave's request, and two new focused tests have been added: test_format_messages_tool_calls_only_sets_content_null and test_format_messages_tool_calls_with_text_keeps_content_string.

Copilot · 2026-02-10T01:56:35Z

crates/goose/src/providers/formats/openai.rs

+        if message.role == Role::Assistant
+            && converted.get("tool_calls").is_some()
+            && converted.get("content").is_none()
+        {
+            converted["content"] = json!(null);
+        }


This new behavior (forcing content: null when an assistant message only contains tool calls) isn’t covered by existing tests; please add/extend a unit test (e.g., update test_format_messages_complex or add a dedicated case) to assert spec[..]["content"].is_null() for assistant tool-call-only messages and that mixed text+tool calls keeps content as a string.

Added two tests in the latest commit (cef2a90): test_format_messages_tool_calls_only_sets_content_null asserts content is present and null for assistant tool-call-only messages. test_format_messages_tool_calls_with_text_keeps_content_string asserts mixed text+tool calls keeps content as a string.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: fl-sean03 <sean@opspawn.com>

Copilot review requested test coverage for the block#6717 fix. Added two tests: - tool_calls_only_sets_content_null: verifies content is null (not missing) - tool_calls_with_text_keeps_content_string: verifies mixed messages keep text Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: fl-sean03 <sean@opspawn.com>

katzdave · 2026-02-10T17:25:38Z

crates/goose/src/providers/formats/openai.rs

    }

+    #[test]
+    fn test_format_messages_tool_calls_only_sets_content_null() -> anyhow::Result<()> {


I don't think we need tests at all for this fix, would prefer we delete completely. Since it's just directly mirroring what's being set above and asserting that.

Makes sense — removing the tests now.

fl-sean03 · 2026-02-11T09:26:29Z

Tests removed — agreed they were just mirroring the fix directly. Thanks for the review!

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Reviewer feedback: tests are unnecessary as they just mirror the fix directly above. Removes test_format_messages_tool_calls_only_sets_content_null and test_format_messages_tool_calls_with_text_keeps_content_string. Signed-off-by: fl-sean03 <sean@opspawn.com>

* origin/main: (107 commits) feat: Allow overriding default bat themes using environment variables (#7140) Make the system prompt smaller (#6991) Pre release script (#7145) Spelling (#7137) feat(mcp): upgrade rmcp to 0.15.0 and advertise MCP Apps UI extension capability (#6927) fix: ensure assistant messages with tool_calls include content field (#7076) fix(canonical): handle gcp_vertex_ai model mapping correctly (#6836) Group dependencies in root Cargo.toml (#6948) refactor: updated elevenLabs API module and `remove button` UX (#6781) fix: we were missing content from langfuse traces (#7135) docs: update username in authors.yml (#7132) fix extension selector syncing issues (#7133) fix(acp): per-session Agent for model isolation and load_session restore (#7115) fix(claude-code): defensive coding improvements for model switching (#7131) feat(claude-code): dynamic model listing and mid-session model switching (#7120) Inline worklet source (#7128) [docs] One shot prompting is dead - Blog Post (#7113) fix: correct spelling of Debbie O'Brien's name in authors.yml (#7127) docs: GCP Vertex AI org policy filtering & update OnboardingProviderSetup component (#7125) feat: replace subagent and skills with unified summon extension (#6964) ... # Conflicts: # Cargo.lock # Cargo.toml

* upstream/main: (109 commits) [docs] Skills Marketplace UI Improvements (block#7158) More no-window flags (block#7122) feat: Allow overriding default bat themes using environment variables (block#7140) Make the system prompt smaller (block#6991) Pre release script (block#7145) Spelling (block#7137) feat(mcp): upgrade rmcp to 0.15.0 and advertise MCP Apps UI extension capability (block#6927) fix: ensure assistant messages with tool_calls include content field (block#7076) fix(canonical): handle gcp_vertex_ai model mapping correctly (block#6836) Group dependencies in root Cargo.toml (block#6948) refactor: updated elevenLabs API module and `remove button` UX (block#6781) fix: we were missing content from langfuse traces (block#7135) docs: update username in authors.yml (block#7132) fix extension selector syncing issues (block#7133) fix(acp): per-session Agent for model isolation and load_session restore (block#7115) fix(claude-code): defensive coding improvements for model switching (block#7131) feat(claude-code): dynamic model listing and mid-session model switching (block#7120) Inline worklet source (block#7128) [docs] One shot prompting is dead - Blog Post (block#7113) fix: correct spelling of Debbie O'Brien's name in authors.yml (block#7127) ...

…7076) Signed-off-by: fl-sean03 <sean@opspawn.com> Co-authored-by: fl-sean03 <sean@opspawn.com> Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-authored-by: OpSpawn <opspawn@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings February 8, 2026 21:40

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of fl-sean03 February 8, 2026 21:40 View session

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fl-sean03 force-pushed the fix/6717-missing-content-field branch from 4536895 to cd9d2dd Compare February 9, 2026 00:37

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Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings February 10, 2026 01:54

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opspawn and others added 2 commits February 10, 2026 02:46

Address review feedback: simplify comment and remove verbose tests

5270889

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: fl-sean03 <sean@opspawn.com>

fl-sean03 force-pushed the fix/6717-missing-content-field branch from cef2a90 to fba64c1 Compare February 10, 2026 02:46

katzdave reviewed Feb 10, 2026

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Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings February 11, 2026 09:26

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of fl-sean03 February 11, 2026 09:26 View session

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fl-sean03 force-pushed the fix/6717-missing-content-field branch from de983cf to feacc37 Compare February 11, 2026 09:35

katzdave approved these changes Feb 11, 2026

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katzdave added this pull request to the merge queue Feb 11, 2026

Merged via the queue into block:main with commit 0e72948 Feb 11, 2026
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DOsinga mentioned this pull request Feb 12, 2026

repeated error #6796

Open

github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Feb 12, 2026

chore(release): release version 1.24.0 (minor) #7102

Open

BrewTestBot mentioned this pull request Feb 12, 2026

block-goose-cli 1.24.0 Homebrew/homebrew-core#267289

Merged

                       Ok(())
                   }
+                  #[test]

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fl-sean03 commented Feb 8, 2026 •

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