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ROO-411: Simplify no assistant message retry behavior #10520

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ROO-411: Simplify no assistant message retry behavior #10520

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088a90b
feat: simplify no assistant message retry behavior to match no tools …
roomote Jan 7, 2026
ab42a9c
fix: push noAssistantMessage prompt to stack and continue instead of …
roomote Jan 7, 2026
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15 changes: 15 additions & 0 deletions src/core/prompts/responses.ts
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -71,6 +71,21 @@ ${instructions}

# Next Steps

If you have completed the user's task, use the attempt_completion tool.
If you require additional information from the user, use the ask_followup_question tool.
Otherwise, if you have not completed the task and do not need additional information, then proceed with the next step of the task.
(This is an automated message, so do not respond to it conversationally.)`
},

noAssistantMessage: (protocol?: ToolProtocol) => {
const instructions = getToolInstructionsReminder(protocol)

return `[ERROR] Your previous response was empty or contained only reasoning without any message content or tool use. Please retry with a proper response.

${instructions}

# Next Steps

If you have completed the user's task, use the attempt_completion tool.
If you require additional information from the user, use the ask_followup_question tool.
Otherwise, if you have not completed the task and do not need additional information, then proceed with the next step of the task.
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96 changes: 13 additions & 83 deletions src/core/task/Task.ts
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Expand Up @@ -3531,93 +3531,23 @@ export class Task extends EventEmitter<TaskEvents> implements TaskLike {
// This provides a "grace retry" - first failure retries silently
if (this.consecutiveNoAssistantMessagesCount >= 2) {
await this.say("error", "MODEL_NO_ASSISTANT_MESSAGES")
// Only count toward mistake limit after second consecutive failure
this.consecutiveMistakeCount++
}

// IMPORTANT: For native tool protocol, we already added the user message to
// apiConversationHistory at line 1876. Since the assistant failed to respond,
// we need to remove that message before retrying to avoid having two consecutive
// user messages (which would cause tool_result validation errors).
let state = await this.providerRef.deref()?.getState()
// Use the task's locked protocol, NOT current settings
if (isNativeProtocol(this._taskToolProtocol ?? "xml") && this.apiConversationHistory.length > 0) {
const lastMessage = this.apiConversationHistory[this.apiConversationHistory.length - 1]
if (lastMessage.role === "user") {
// Remove the last user message that we added earlier
this.apiConversationHistory.pop()
}
}

// Check if we should auto-retry or prompt the user
// Reuse the state variable from above
if (state?.autoApprovalEnabled) {
// Auto-retry with backoff - don't persist failure message when retrying
await this.backoffAndAnnounce(
currentItem.retryAttempt ?? 0,
new Error(
"Unexpected API Response: The language model did not provide any assistant messages. This may indicate an issue with the API or the model's output.",
),
)

// Check if task was aborted during the backoff
if (this.abort) {
console.log(
`[Task#${this.taskId}.${this.instanceId}] Task aborted during empty-assistant retry backoff`,
)
break
}

// Push the same content back onto the stack to retry, incrementing the retry attempt counter
// Mark that user message was removed so it gets re-added on retry
stack.push({
userContent: currentUserContent,
includeFileDetails: false,
retryAttempt: (currentItem.retryAttempt ?? 0) + 1,
userMessageWasRemoved: true,
})

// Continue to retry the request
continue
} else {
// Prompt the user for retry decision
const { response } = await this.ask(
"api_req_failed",
"The model returned no assistant messages. This may indicate an issue with the API or the model's output.",
)

if (response === "yesButtonClicked") {
await this.say("api_req_retried")

// Push the same content back to retry
stack.push({
userContent: currentUserContent,
includeFileDetails: false,
retryAttempt: (currentItem.retryAttempt ?? 0) + 1,
})

// Continue to retry the request
continue
} else {
// User declined to retry
// For native protocol, re-add the user message we removed
// Use the task's locked protocol, NOT current settings
if (isNativeProtocol(this._taskToolProtocol ?? "xml")) {
await this.addToApiConversationHistory({
role: "user",
content: currentUserContent,
})
}
// Use the task's locked protocol for consistent behavior
this.userMessageContent.push({
type: "text",
text: formatResponse.noAssistantMessage(this._taskToolProtocol ?? "xml"),
})

await this.say(
"error",
"Unexpected API Response: The language model did not provide any assistant messages. This may indicate an issue with the API or the model's output.",
)
// Push to stack and continue to retry with the noAssistantMessage prompt
stack.push({
userContent: [...this.userMessageContent],
includeFileDetails: false,
})

await this.addToApiConversationHistory({
role: "assistant",
content: [{ type: "text", text: "Failure: I did not provide a response." }],
})
}
}
continue
}

// If we reach here without continuing, return false (will always be false for now)
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