LiteLLM Streaming Content Duplication in Tool Call Responses

[thesynapses]

Summary

When using LiteLLM models with ADK's planning features (e.g., PlanReActPlanner) in streaming mode, planning and reasoning content appears twice in responses when tool calls are made:

1. First during streaming as individual text chunks (lines 1288-1296)
2. Again in the aggregated tool-call message with content=text (line 1352)

This violates OpenAI/LiteLLM conventions and creates unnecessary duplication in conversation history.

Environment

• ADK Version: 1.19.0
• Affected File: lite_llm.py
• Python Version: 3.11+
• Models Affected: All non-Gemini models accessed via LiteLLM (Claude, GPT, etc.) when using planning workflows
• Feature: Streaming responses with tool calls

Expected Behavior

According to OpenAI/LiteLLM API specifications:

• When a message contains only tool calls (no user-facing answer text), the content field should be None
• Planning/reasoning text like <PLANNING>I need to search...</PLANNING> is internal reasoning, not the final answer
• Tool-call messages should follow this structure:

{
  "role": "assistant",
  "content": None,  # No content for tool-only messages
  "tool_calls": [...]
}

Actual Behavior

The aggregated response at line 1348-1359 sets content=text, including all accumulated planning/reasoning text:

aggregated_llm_response_with_tool_call = (
    _message_to_generate_content_response(
        ChatCompletionAssistantMessage(
            role="assistant",
            content=text,  # Includes planning text, causing duplication
            tool_calls=tool_calls,
        ),
        model_version=part.model,
        thought_parts=list(reasoning_parts)
        if reasoning_parts
        else None,
    )
)

Result: Planning text appears twice:

1. During streaming (lines 1288-1296): <PLANNING>I need to search...</PLANNING> streamed chunk-by-chunk
2. In aggregated message (line 1352): Same text included in content field

Impact

1. Content Duplication

• Frontend receives the same planning text twice
• Requires additional filtering logic in application code
• Poor user experience if not handled

2. API Convention Violation

• OpenAI/Claude/GPT APIs expect content=None for tool-only messages
• Current implementation sends content=<planning_text>, which is semantically incorrect
• Tool-call messages should not contain answer text in content

3. Conversation History Bloat

• Planning text unnecessarily stored in message content field
• Already preserved separately in thought_parts (line 1357)
• Increases storage and memory overhead

4. Semantic Confusion

• content=text implies "model generated answer text AND called tools"
• Reality: model only generated internal reasoning before calling tools
• Misrepresents the actual interaction flow

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create an agent with LiteLLM model:

from google.adk.agents import Agent
from google.adk.models import LiteLlm
from google.adk.planners import PlanReActPlanner

agent = Agent(
    model=LiteLlm(model="vertex_ai/claude-3-5-sonnet-v2@20241022"),
    planner=PlanReActPlanner(),
    tools=[search_tool, ...]
)

2. Enable streaming and send a query requiring tools:

async for response in agent.run_streaming("What's the weather in Boston?"):
    print(response.content)

3. Observe in logs:

   • Planning text like <PLANNING>I need to search for weather</PLANNING> streamed as chunks
   • Same planning text appears again in aggregated response content field when tool calls are made

4. Check conversation history:

   • Tool-call message has content="<PLANNING>..." instead of content=None

Root Cause

Lines 1268-1303: Accumulate all text chunks (including planning) into text variable:

text = ""
...
elif isinstance(chunk, TextChunk):
    text += chunk.text  # Accumulates planning/reasoning text
    yield _message_to_generate_content_response(...)  # Already streamed to user

Line 1352: Includes accumulated text again in aggregated message:

content=text,  # Duplicates already-streamed planning text

Line 1357: Planning already preserved separately:

thought_parts=list(reasoning_parts) if reasoning_parts else None,

Proposed Fix

Change line 1352 to set content=None for tool-only messages:

aggregated_llm_response_with_tool_call = (
    _message_to_generate_content_response(
        ChatCompletionAssistantMessage(
            role="assistant",
            content=None,  # ✅ FIX: No duplication, follows OpenAI/LiteLLM spec
            tool_calls=tool_calls,
        ),
        model_version=part.model,
        thought_parts=list(reasoning_parts)
        if reasoning_parts
        else None,
    )
)

Comparison with Non-Streaming

Non-streaming path (around line 770) correctly handles this by:

• Creating a single response with complete tool call information
• No opportunity for duplication (no incremental streaming)

Streaming path (lines 1268-1400) has the duplication issue because:

• Text chunks yielded immediately during streaming
• Then included again in final aggregated message

The fix brings streaming behavior in line with non-streaming and API conventions.

Additional Context

• This issue specifically affects planning workflows where models generate reasoning text before calling tools
• Does not affect simple tool-call scenarios without planning text
• thought_parts parameter already exists to preserve reasoning separately from message content
• Frontend applications using ADK planning need to implement workarounds to deduplicate content

---

Recommended Fix (Summary)

# Line 1348-1359
aggregated_llm_response_with_tool_call = (
    _message_to_generate_content_response(
        ChatCompletionAssistantMessage(
            role="assistant",
            content=None,  # ✅ FIX: Avoid duplication, follow OpenAI spec
            tool_calls=tool_calls,
        ),
        model_version=part.model,
        thought_parts=list(reasoning_parts)
        if reasoning_parts
        else None,
    )
)

This single-line change eliminates content duplication, aligns with API standards, and maintains semantic correctness for tool-call messages in streaming responses.

[klateefa]

@thesynapses Thanks for reporting
The duplication occurs at lite_llm.py:1649 where content=text includes already-streamed planning text in the aggregated tool-call message.

Your PR #3698 with the fix (content=None) correctly follows OpenAI/LiteLLM conventions and is ready for review.

Until it's merged, you can work around this by deduplicating content in your application code using a set to track seen text.
The fix will eliminate duplication and properly preserve planning in thought_parts only.

Thanks!

Hey! I work on LiteLLM. This is a good catch.

You're right that when a message has tool calls without user-facing content, content should be None. The planning/reasoning text in <PLANNING> tags is internal and shouldn't be duplicated.

A quick fix would be to check if the accumulated text is only planning/reasoning content:

# Before setting content, check if it's only internal reasoning
import re
planning_pattern = r'^<(PLANNING|REASONING|THOUGHT)>.*</(PLANNING|REASONING|THOUGHT)>$'
if tool_calls and (not text or re.match(planning_pattern, text.strip(), re.DOTALL)):
    content = None
else:
    content = text

Alternatively, if all planning text should be stripped when tool calls exist, you could set content = None whenever tool_calls is non-empty.

Happy to help debug further if needed!

[adk-bot]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity for 7 days after a maintainer requested clarification. It will be closed if no further activity occurs within 7 days.