microsoft/autogen

Improved tool documentation, explicit field for error, and error filtering

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#5267 opened on Jan 30, 2025

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 (2 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)Python (58,033 stars) (8,759 forks)batch import
help wantedproj-agentchatproj-core

Description

What feature would you like to be added?

  1. Documentation currently describes only happy paths for tools. It is unclear how to deal with errors in tools. There is no mention that you can simply raise an exception.
  2. The FunctionExecutionResultMessage should have a field indicating that an error was raised (Somewhat related #4725 )
  3. An option to catch only specific errors with the option to stop for others

Why is this needed?

  1. Avoids that everyone has to read the code
  2. Anthropic models have an explicit field to indicate tool errors
  3. Some exceptions indicate serious issues that make it useless to continue. At that point I'd like to stop.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
python
Domain
documentationbackend
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Basic PythonFamiliarity with autogen toolsUnderstanding of message types
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
60
Research direction
Focus on updating the documentation for tools to include error handling (directory: docs/). Examine the FunctionExecutionResultMessage class in autogen/messages.py or similar. Review linked issue #4725 for context on the explicit error field. Investigate how Anthropic handles tool errors for inspiration on error filtering. Implement the error field and filtering options while ensuring backward compatibility.