LLM-as-judge default config triggers google-genai's AFC warning in every eval run
@surajksharma07 is already working on this.
Since Sep 17, 2026.
Assessment
- Difficulty
- 1/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Newbie friendliness
- 86/100
- Issue type
- Bug
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Activity status
- Active
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- testing-qa
Research direction
Start at src/google/adk/evaluation/llm_as_judge.py:224-225, where LlmAsJudge creates the default GenerateContentConfig for judge requests. Verify the default disables automatic function calling without changing user-supplied judge_model_config, then run the relevant evaluation checks and confirm the google-genai AFC warning no longer appears.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Summary
Every rubric-based eval run logs this google-genai warning once per process:
WARNING google_genai.models: Direct use of automatic function calling (AFC) in AsyncModels.generate_content is not recommended. Instead, we recommend to use AFC in AsyncChat.send_message. Similarly, direct use of AFC in AsyncModels.generate_content_stream is not recommended. ...
The agent under evaluation does not cause it. It comes from the LLM-as-judge request.
Where it comes from
LlmAsJudge builds the judge request with config=self._judge_model_options.judge_model_config or genai_types.GenerateContentConfig() (src/google/adk/evaluation/llm_as_judge.py:224-225 on main at ce53a36c0a, and the same in 2.9.0 and 2.9.1).
That default config sets neither tools nor automatic_function_calling. google-genai's AsyncModels.generate_content therefore takes its AFC branch and logs the warning:
_extra_utils.should_disable_afcreturnsFalsewhenautomatic_function_callingis unset.- With no tools there are no AFC-incompatible tool indexes, so the direct
_generate_contentpath is skipped.
An agent's own model calls do not hit this. ADK sends tools as function_declarations, which google-genai marks AFC-incompatible, so those calls go straight to _generate_content.
How it was observed
In an eval suite running rubric_based_*_quality_v1 metrics with gemini-3.5-flash as judge (google-adk 2.9.0, google-genai as resolved by it):
- The warning appears once per pytest process.
- It always appears right after the agent's inference for the case ends and right before the rubric verdicts.
- It never appears during the agent's own model calls.
- The deployed agent's logs, same code without the eval harness, contain no occurrence over 7 days.
Suggestion
The judge never needs automatic function calling. Its default config could disable it explicitly:
config=self._judge_model_options.judge_model_config
or genai_types.GenerateContentConfig(
automatic_function_calling=genai_types.AutomaticFunctionCallingConfig(disable=True)
),
This does not change the request sent to the model (the field is client-side only) and removes a warning that points users at their own agent. Users who pass judge_model_config are unaffected.
- Dominant language
- Python
- Stars
- 21.6k
- Forks
- 4k
- Avg merge
- 13h 49m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 10
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
More from google/adk-python
-
mcp
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 75/100
google/adk-python#7217 · 2 comments · 1 assignee ·
-
tools
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 78/100
google/adk-python#7206 · 1 comment · 1 assignee ·
-
tools
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 86/100
google/adk-python#7205 · 1 comment · 1 assignee ·
-
mcp
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 78/100
google/adk-python#7196 · 1 comment · 1 assignee ·
-
mcp
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 88/100
google/adk-python#7144 · 1 comment · 1 assignee ·
All issues in google/adk-python
Similar issues
-
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 88/100
-
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 82/100
-
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 78/100
-
enhancement
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 72/100
-
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 74/100