Get rid of exception catching in tools, they should rely on toolExecutor to catch and transform errors into LLM readable objects.

Author: bhouston

packages/agent/src/core/executeToolCall.ts

@@ -39,7 +39,25 @@ export const executeToolCall = async (
   }
 
   // TODO: validate JSON schema for input
-  const output = await tool.execute(toolCall.input, toolContext);
+  let output;
+  try {
+    output = await tool.execute(toolCall.input, toolContext);
+  } catch (err) {
+    if (err instanceof Error) {
+      logger.error(err.message);
+      return JSON.stringify({
+        error: true,
+        message: err.message,
+        stack: err.stack,
+      });
+    } else {
+      logger.error(err);
+      return JSON.stringify({
+        error: true,
+        message: err,
+      });
+    }
+  }
 
   // for each result log it and its name
   if (tool.logReturns) {

packages/agent/src/core/toolAgent.test.ts

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ const toolContext: ToolContext = {
   userSession: false,
   pageFilter: 'simple',
   tokenTracker: new TokenTracker(),
+  githubMode: false,
 };
 
 // Mock tool for testing
@@ -98,16 +99,21 @@ describe('toolAgent', () => {
   });
 
   it('should handle tool execution errors', async () => {
-    await expect(
-      executeToolCall(
-        {
-          id: '1',
-          name: 'errorTool',
-          input: {},
-        },
-        [errorTool],
-        toolContext,
-      ),
-    ).rejects.toThrow('Deliberate failure');
+    const result = await executeToolCall(
+      {
+        id: '1',
+        name: 'errorTool',
+        input: {},
+      },
+      [errorTool],
+      toolContext,
+    );
+
+    // Parse the result as JSON
+    const parsedResult = JSON.parse(result);
+
+    // Check that it contains the expected error properties
+    expect(parsedResult.error).toBe(true);
+    expect(parsedResult.message).toContain('Deliberate failure');
   });
 });

packages/agent/src/core/toolAgent/config.ts

@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ import { execSync } from 'child_process';
 
 import { anthropic } from '@ai-sdk/anthropic';
 
+import { ToolContext } from '../types';
+
 /**
  * Default configuration for the tool agent
  */
@@ -16,9 +18,7 @@ export const DEFAULT_CONFIG = {
 /**
  * Gets the default system prompt with contextual information about the environment
  */
-export function getDefaultSystemPrompt(options?: {
-  githubMode?: boolean;
-}): string {
+export function getDefaultSystemPrompt(toolContext: ToolContext): string {
   // Gather context with error handling
   const getCommandOutput = (command: string, label: string): string => {
     try {
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ export function getDefaultSystemPrompt(options?: {
     files: getCommandOutput('ls -la', 'file listing'),
     system: getCommandOutput('uname -a', 'system information'),
     datetime: new Date().toString(),
-    githubMode: options?.githubMode || false,
+    githubMode: toolContext.githubMode,
   };
 
   const githubModeInstructions = context.githubMode
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ export function getDefaultSystemPrompt(options?: {
     '3. Update documentation as needed',
     '4. Consider adding documentation if you encountered setup/understanding challenges',
     '',
-    'Feel free to use Google and Bing via the browser tools to search for information or for ideas when you get stuck.',
+    'Feel free to use AI friendly search engines via the browser tools to search for information or for ideas when you get stuck.',
     '',
     'When you run into issues or unexpected results, take a step back and read the project documentation and configuration files and look at other source files in the project for examples of what works.',
     '',

packages/agent/src/core/toolAgent/index.ts

@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ export const toolAgent = async (
   logger.debug('User message:', initialPrompt);
 
   // Get the system prompt once at the start
-  const systemPrompt = config.getSystemPrompt();
+  const systemPrompt = config.getSystemPrompt(context);
 
   for (let i = 0; i < config.maxIterations; i++) {
     logger.verbose(

packages/agent/src/core/toolAgent/toolExecutor.ts

@@ -49,11 +49,18 @@ export async function executeTools(
           ...context,
           tokenTracker: new TokenTracker(call.name, context.tokenTracker),
         });
-      } catch (error: any) {
-        toolResult = JSON.stringify({
-          errorMessage: error.message,
-          errorType: error.constructor.name,
-        });
+      } catch (errorStr: any) {
+        if (errorStr instanceof Error) {
+          if (errorStr.stack) {
+            context.logger.error(`Tool error stack trace: ${errorStr.stack}`);
+          }
+          toolResult = JSON.stringify(errorStr);
+        } else {
+          toolResult = JSON.stringify({
+            errorMessage: errorStr.message,
+            errorType: errorStr.name,
+          });
+        }
       }
 
       return {

packages/agent/src/core/types.ts

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ export type ToolContext = {
   userSession: boolean;
   pageFilter: pageFilter;
   tokenTracker: TokenTracker;
+  githubMode: boolean;
 };
 
 export type Tool<TParams = Record<string, any>, TReturn = any> = {

packages/agent/src/tools/interaction/subAgent.ts

@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@ import { anthropic } from '@ai-sdk/anthropic';
 import { z } from 'zod';
 import { zodToJsonSchema } from 'zod-to-json-schema';
 
+import { getDefaultSystemPrompt } from '../../core/toolAgent/index.js';
 import { toolAgent } from '../../core/toolAgent.js';
-import { Tool } from '../../core/types.js';
+import { Tool, ToolContext } from '../../core/types.js';
 import { getTools } from '../getTools.js';
 
 const parameterSchema = z.object({
@@ -53,8 +54,9 @@ const subAgentConfig = {
   model: anthropic('claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219'),
   maxTokens: 4096,
   temperature: 0.7,
-  getSystemPrompt: () => {
+  getSystemPrompt: (context: ToolContext) => {
     return [
+      getDefaultSystemPrompt(context),
       'You are a focused AI sub-agent handling a specific task.',
       'You have access to the same tools as the main agent but should focus only on your assigned task.',
       'When complete, call the sequenceComplete tool with your results.',

packages/agent/src/tools/io/textEditor.test.ts

@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ const toolContext: ToolContext = {
   userSession: false,
   pageFilter: 'simple',
   tokenTracker: new TokenTracker(),
+  githubMode: false,
 };
 
 describe('textEditor', () => {
@@ -259,18 +260,16 @@ describe('textEditor', () => {
     const testPath = join(testDir, `${randomUUID()}.txt`);
 
     // Try to view a non-existent file
-    const result = await textEditorTool.execute(
-      {
-        command: 'view',
-        path: testPath,
-        description: 'test',
-      },
-      toolContext,
-    );
-
-    // Verify return value
-    expect(result.success).toBe(false);
-    expect(result.message).toContain('not found');
+    await expect(async () => {
+      await textEditorTool.execute(
+        {
+          command: 'view',
+          path: testPath,
+          description: 'test',
+        },
+        toolContext,
+      );
+    }).rejects.toThrow(/not found/);
   });
 
   it('should handle errors for duplicate string replacements', async () => {
@@ -291,19 +290,17 @@ describe('textEditor', () => {
     );
 
     // Try to replace text with multiple occurrences
-    const result = await textEditorTool.execute(
-      {
-        command: 'str_replace',
-        path: testPath,
-        old_str: oldStr,
-        new_str: newStr,
-        description: 'test',
-      },
-      toolContext,
-    );
-
-    // Verify return value
-    expect(result.success).toBe(false);
-    expect(result.message).toContain('Found 2 occurrences');
+    await expect(async () => {
+      await textEditorTool.execute(
+        {
+          command: 'str_replace',
+          path: testPath,
+          old_str: oldStr,
+          new_str: newStr,
+          description: 'test',
+        },
+        toolContext,
+      );
+    }).rejects.toThrow(/Found 2 occurrences/);
   });
 });