[Bug]: Composite tools guide: incorrect template paths for elicitation action and content

[danbarr]

Summary

The composite tools guide documents the following template paths for elicitation step results:

Documented path	Description
{{.steps.id.action}}	Elicitation action (accept/decline/cancel)
{{.steps.id.content}}	Elicitation response content

These paths resolve to <no value> at runtime. The actual working paths are:

Correct path	Description
{{.steps.id.output.action}}	Elicitation action (accept/decline/cancel)
{{.steps.id.output.content}}	Elicitation response content

The action and content are stored inside the step's output map, consistent with how tool step results are accessed (.steps.id.output.field).

Impact

Any composite tool using a condition like {{eq .steps.approval.action "accept"}} silently evaluates to false, causing conditional steps to always be skipped — even when the user accepts the elicitation.

Verified behavior

Tested by adding a debug output field:

• {{.steps.approval.action}} → <no value>
• {{.steps.approval.output.action}} → accept

The same comment in the source code (pkg/vmcp/composer/composer.go lines 87-92) also has the incorrect paths.

Related

• Composite tools: elicitation message doesn't expand template expressions toolhive#4312 — elicitation message template expansion bug
• [Gap]: Composite tools guide: gaps found when building a real workflow #627 — other composite tools guide gaps
• [Gap]: Composite tools guide: output spec not documented #628 — output spec not documented