#1741 - enhancement: improve agent registration failure messages and empty shell listing. by simeshev · Pull Request #1786 · embabel/embabel-agent

simeshev · 2026-07-13T22:45:40Z

No description provided.

… empty shell listing. Signed-off-by: Slava Imeshev <imeshev@yahoo.com>

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Pull request overview

This PR addresses issue #1741 by improving user-facing output when listing agents in the shell (including an empty state) and by making agent auto-registration failures more explicit and actionable through clearer warnings and stricter validation.

Changes:

Add an explicit empty-state response for the agents shell command and preserve detailed output + a concise summary when agents exist.
Improve agent registration failure warnings and enforce non-registration on GOAP validation failures, with new regression tests covering these cases.
Adjust logging severity when an agent process runs with no goals (where goals are required).

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 6 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
embabel-agent-shell/src/test/kotlin/com/embabel/agent/shell/ShellCommandsAgentsTest.kt	Adds regression tests for `agents` command empty-state and detailed/summary output.
embabel-agent-shell/src/main/kotlin/com/embabel/agent/shell/ShellCommands.kt	Implements empty-state handling and uses a `Summary` section for agents/actions listings.
embabel-agent-api/src/test/kotlin/com/embabel/agent/api/annotation/support/testTypes.kt	Adds new annotated test agent types to exercise registration/validation failure cases.
embabel-agent-api/src/test/kotlin/com/embabel/agent/api/annotation/support/AgentMetadataReaderMetadataTest.kt	Adds OutputCapture-based assertions ensuring explicit “not registered” warnings are logged.
embabel-agent-api/src/main/kotlin/com/embabel/agent/core/support/AbstractAgentProcess.kt	Raises log level to error when a goals-required process has no goals.
embabel-agent-api/src/main/kotlin/com/embabel/agent/api/annotation/support/AgentMetadataReader.kt	Improves warning messages for registration failures and returns null on GOAP validation failure.

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…puts Nullable domain params skip the input precondition, so path validation failed with NO_PATH_TO_GOAL and createAgentMetadata returned null. Keep planner=GOAP; fix RetryActionAnnotationTest and ActionRetryPolicyPropertiesTest fixtures only. Signed-off-by: Slava Imeshev <imeshev@yahoo.com>

…lorPalette implementation via an anonymous ColorPalette object. Using DefaultColorPalette directly avoids duplication and keeps the test aligned if the default palette changes." Signed-off-by: Slava Imeshev <imeshev@yahoo.com>

igordayen · 2026-07-14T11:53:39Z

@deleSerna - can it be closed, as you opened the issue? thanks.

deleSerna

can it be closed, as you opened the issue?
Yes, the PR looks good to me.

igordayen

@simeshev - looks good, few comments to consider, thanks.

igordayen · 2026-07-15T00:10:39Z

    @AchievesGoal(description = "Process the input")
    @Action(actionRetryPolicyExpression = "\${retry-twice}")
-    fun perform(input: JavaRetryTestInput?): JavaRetryTestOutput {
+    fun perform(input: JavaRetryTestInput): JavaRetryTestOutput {


Guaranteed not null?

What prompted this change?

azanux

Thanks @simeshev , everything looks good, just one small blocker to check.

Nothing to do with your PR but it could impact the PR, so it would be nice to fix it at the same time:

AgentMetadataReader.kt:84: + instead of += returns a new list and the result is discarded, so the error is never added. A blank @Agent(description = "") produces no warning at all: validationErrors() comes back empty and the agent registers silently.

azanux · 2026-07-15T04:30:55Z

+                    agent.name,
+                    validationResult.errors.joinToString("\n"),
+                )
+                return null


Agents whose goal action takes no input (or only a nullable one) silently stop registering.
agents that failed validation used to register with a warning, now they don't register at all.

Not sure but the bug seems to be in GoapPathToCompletionValidator.kt:215:

if (plan == null || plan.actions.isEmpty()) { // → NO_PATH_TO_GOAL

@simeshev @azanux - good point, for pointing to GoapPathToCompletionValidator ==> so it will be at the very end, properly reported, if there are no actions, per my understanding; rather than updating half a dozen log statements with the same PREFIX, it actually gets accommodated in a single place, correct?

@igordayen It depends on how @simeshev resolve the behaviour change first: this PR uncommented the return null at line 313 : Agents whose goal action takes no input (or only a nullable one) used to register with a warning, and now don't register at all

On your point: partially right. Line 309 is the only warn fed by the validator, so that path is centralised. But lines others are early return nulls - validate() is only called at line 306, so they exit before it and never reach GoapPathToCompletionValidator.

@azanux - I've fixed "AgentMetadataReader.kt:84: + instead of += returns a new list and the result is discarded, so the error is never added. A blank @agent(description = "") produces no warning at all: validationErrors() comes back empty and the agent registers silently."

@igordayen

Agents whose goal action takes no input (or only a nullable one) used to register with a warning, and now don't register at all

I can reduce the scope of thange and comment return null for now because this PR is supposed to be about improving error messaging. Would it do it?

I can reduce the scope of the change and comment return null
Make sense to me. I assumed that would not have much impact. But it's better to leave that untouched for now.
I could look at the impact of that uncommenting null and raise a PR later.

t depends on how @simeshev resolve the behaviour change first: this PR uncommented the return null at line 313 : Agents whose goal action takes no input (or only a nullable one) used to register with a warning, and now don't register at all
@simeshev - could you please comment on the behavior changes?

@azanux - per my understanding, the only open item as of now.
thanks.

azanux · 2026-07-15T04:55:23Z

    @AchievesGoal(description = "Process the input")
    @Action(actionRetryPolicyExpression = "\${retry-twice}")
-    fun firstAction(input: RetryTestInput?): RetryTestOutput {
+    fun firstAction(input: RetryTestInput): RetryTestOutput {


This test covers retry behaviour, not sure that input nullability have to do with it.
maybe this needed because the new return null in AgentMetadataReader stops the agent registering, rather than because the fixture was wrong?

What prompted this change?

igordayen

@azanux - thanks for feedback, appears, morre attention required then.

…(name = "star-wars-fan")), not the class, so the log gives no clue which file to open - and this is the path where the agent gets removed, so we need it most." Signed-off-by: Slava Imeshev <imeshev@yahoo.com>

… returns a new list and the result is discarded, so the error is never added. A blank @agent(description = "") produces no warning at all: validationErrors() comes back empty and the agent registers silently." Signed-off-by: Slava Imeshev <imeshev@yahoo.com>

sonarqubecloud · 2026-07-15T18:27:10Z

Quality Gate passed

Issues
0 New issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
76.9% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube Cloud

igordayen · 2026-07-15T19:17:17Z

@simeshev - Slava, could you please tag the addressed comments as "Resolved"? Thank you

igordayen

Changing behavior on failing validation requires re-validation itself:)

igordayen · 2026-07-17T00:46:42Z

+                    agenticInfo.agentName(),
+                    validationResult.errors.joinToString("\n"),
+                )
+                return null


Changes current behavior...

@igordayen Is it Ok if I create a separate ticket for failing validation. IMO, the API doc of DefaultAgentStructureValidator clearly states that invalid agents should not be used in the system. Therefore, we should just fail it. But I agree that behavior change should not be part of this PR but it's own.

Reports detailed validation errors for structural issues, helping ensure that only well-formed agents are registered or used in the system.

@deleSerna - should be fine, post-release 1.0.0. The current PR then needs to change logging statements accordingly and also elaborate on changes in Retry. thanks

igordayen

The second commit had to change RetryTestInput? →
RetryTestInput (nullable → non-nullable) because nullable action params cause GOAP path validation to return
NO_PATH_TO_GOAL. That means any existing agent with intentionally nullable params will now silently not register after
this PR.

igordayen · 2026-07-17T01:11:38Z

    @AchievesGoal(description = "Process the input")
    @Action(actionRetryPolicyExpression = "\${retry-twice}")
-    fun firstAction(input: RetryTestInput?): RetryTestOutput {
+    fun firstAction(input: RetryTestInput): RetryTestOutput {


What prompted this change?

igordayen · 2026-07-31T00:23:54Z

@simeshev, @deleSerna, @tuannx, @azanux - does this PR still need to be open? Asking since it overlaps with
#1801 and #1833

Thanks

igordayen · 2026-08-06T02:01:52Z

@simeshev superseded by #1801 , #1833

Thank you

#1741 - enhancement: improve agent registration failure messages and…

90183b6

… empty shell listing. Signed-off-by: Slava Imeshev <imeshev@yahoo.com>

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings July 13, 2026 22:45

simeshev linked an issue Jul 13, 2026 that may be closed by this pull request

Improve the warning message when Agent does not meet the necessary criteria to register as an Agent #1741

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Copilot started reviewing on behalf of simeshev July 13, 2026 22:46 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 13, 2026

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Comment thread embabel-agent-shell/src/test/kotlin/com/embabel/agent/shell/ShellCommandsAgentsTest.kt Outdated

simeshev added 2 commits July 13, 2026 16:32

simeshev requested review from alexheifetz, azanux and igordayen July 14, 2026 01:04

igordayen mentioned this pull request Jul 14, 2026

Improve the warning message when Agent does not meet the necessary criteria to register as an Agent #1741

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deleSerna approved these changes Jul 14, 2026

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igordayen reviewed Jul 15, 2026

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azanux reviewed Jul 15, 2026

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igordayen requested changes Jul 15, 2026

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simeshev added 2 commits July 15, 2026 09:48

#1741 - resolved feedback "agentName() returns the logical name (@agent…

4dbb8ba

…(name = "star-wars-fan")), not the class, so the log gives no clue which file to open - and this is the path where the agent gets removed, so we need it most." Signed-off-by: Slava Imeshev <imeshev@yahoo.com>

igordayen reviewed Jul 17, 2026

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igordayen requested changes Jul 17, 2026

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alexheifetz added the release-1.5.0 label Jul 24, 2026

tuannx mentioned this pull request Jul 27, 2026

fix(core): log an error when a duplicate name silently drops a goal, action or tool #1833

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igordayen added release-2.0 and removed release-1.5.0 labels Aug 1, 2026

igordayen closed this Aug 6, 2026

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sonarqubecloud Bot commented Jul 15, 2026

Quality Gate passed

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