Skip to content

Conversation

JackYPCOnline
Copy link
Contributor

@JackYPCOnline JackYPCOnline commented Oct 2, 2025

Description

The current Agent APIs (Agent.call, Agent.invoke_async, Agent.stream_async) accept arbitrary keyword arguments via **kwargs, which are then converted to invocation_state and passed through the execution pipeline to tools. This has the downside that any new parameter we want to add to these methods could potentially conflict with user-provided kwargs, making it impossible to evolve the API without breaking changes.

Change:
Add invocation_state as parameter to agent's APIs.
Still keep **kwargs for now to keep backward compatible, merge **kwargs to invocation_state instead.

Related Issues

#919

Documentation PR

Type of Change

Bug fix
New feature
Breaking change
Documentation update
Other (please describe):

Testing

How have you tested the change? Verify that the changes do not break functionality or introduce warnings in consuming repositories: agents-docs, agents-tools, agents-cli

  • I ran hatch run prepare

Checklist

  • [x ] I have read the CONTRIBUTING document
  • [x ] I have added any necessary tests that prove my fix is effective or my feature works
  • I have updated the documentation accordingly
  • I have added an appropriate example to the documentation to outline the feature, or no new docs are needed
  • [x ] My changes generate no new warnings
  • [x ] Any dependent changes have been merged and published

By submitting this pull request, I confirm that you can use, modify, copy, and redistribute this contribution, under the terms of your choice.

@JackYPCOnline JackYPCOnline marked this pull request as ready for review October 2, 2025 18:55
@JackYPCOnline JackYPCOnline requested a review from Unshure October 2, 2025 18:55
@pgrayy
Copy link
Member

pgrayy commented Oct 2, 2025

Can you add details to the PR description explaining the purpose of this change?

Copy link
Member

@Unshure Unshure left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Can you add unit tests for this

merged_state["invocation_state"] = invocation_state
else:
if invocation_state is not None:
merged_state["invocation_state"] = invocation_state
Copy link
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

aren't we double nesting here?

4. Backward compatibility breaks silently
Old code using agent("prompt", user_id="123") will work but 
with a deprecation warning. However, if someone tries to migrate 
by wrapping it: agent("prompt", invocation_state={"user_id": "123"}), 
the data ends up in a different location in the state dict.

so when you try to use agent("prompt", invocation_state={"user_id": "123"}), you would need to do this in the tool:

tool_context.invocation_state.invocation_state.user_id

is this the desired devx for now?

Copy link
Contributor Author

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

yep, see comment

Copy link
Member

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I'm not sure I agree with this; see the Unit Test comment below. But the intent is that users would replace kwargs with invocation_state - but if they're already using kwargs, then we mimic the old behavior to avoid a breaking change, while nudging them towards invocation_state

Basically it should be something like:

if kwargs:
   merged_state = kwargs
   # emit warning
   if invocation_state:
       # If the user is using kwargs, that means they intended all arguments to be kwargs
       merged_state["invocation_state'] = kwargs
else:
    merged_state = invocation_state

Copy link
Contributor Author

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Adjusted.

if xxx:
 ........
else:
    if invocation_state is not none: # Added this line, we are not accepting `None` now.

@JackYPCOnline
Copy link
Contributor Author

Can you add unit tests for this

Actually this change is covered by origin test code but I can add a specific one

Co-authored-by: Nick Clegg <nac542@gmail.com>
merged_state["invocation_state"] = invocation_state
else:
if invocation_state is not None:
merged_state["invocation_state"] = invocation_state
Copy link
Member

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I'm not sure I agree with this; see the Unit Test comment below. But the intent is that users would replace kwargs with invocation_state - but if they're already using kwargs, then we mimic the old behavior to avoid a breaking change, while nudging them towards invocation_state

Basically it should be something like:

if kwargs:
   merged_state = kwargs
   # emit warning
   if invocation_state:
       # If the user is using kwargs, that means they intended all arguments to be kwargs
       merged_state["invocation_state'] = kwargs
else:
    merged_state = invocation_state

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment
Labels
None yet
Projects
None yet
Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

9 participants