Files
hermes-agent/hermes_cli
Teknium a63a2b7c78 fix(goals): force judge to use tool calls instead of JSON-text replies (#23547)
Live-tested on gemini-3-flash-preview the judge kept returning empty
or non-JSON content, tripping the consecutive-parse-failures auto-
pause. Free-form JSON output is hopeful; tool-call schemas are
enforced server-side by virtually every modern provider.

Two new tools the judge calls:

  - submit_checklist(items)  — Phase A, decompose
  - update_checklist(updates, new_items, reason) — Phase B, evaluate

Both phases now call the auxiliary client with tool_choice forcing
the right tool. read_file remains for Phase B history inspection,
with the loop exiting only when update_checklist is called or the
read budget is exhausted (at which point read_file is dropped from
the toolbox and update_checklist is forced).

Robustness:
- _call_judge_with_tool_choice falls back tool_choice forced→required→
  auto if the provider rejects a particular shape.
- If a fully-broken provider still returns content instead of a tool
  call, the legacy JSON-text parsers stay around as a last-ditch
  backstop so we never silently lose a checklist.
- _normalize_update_args replaces the JSON parser for the apply
  layer; same 1-based→0-based conversion + terminal-status filter.

Live verification: same fizzbuzz goal that was hitting 'judge model
returned unparseable output 3 turns in a row' before now terminates
in 2 turns, all 11 items marked completed with item-specific
evidence, no auto-pause. Agent log shows
'produced 11 checklist items via tool call' instead of the JSON-
parse path.

Tests: 7 new cases for the tool-call path (Phase A success, Phase B
update only, Phase B read_file→update, JSON-content backstop,
empty-text item dropping, non-terminal status filter).
2026-05-10 20:51:40 -07:00
..