Return Direct (return_direct) ONLY if an Exception is not thrown.

[nanodan]

Checked

• I searched existing ideas and did not find a similar one
• I added a very descriptive title
• I've clearly described the feature request and motivation for it

Feature request

Right now return direct will terminate the change upon completion of the underlying tool; this is the case regardless of whether or not the tool threw an exception. I want the ability to have the agent chain not terminate if an exception was thrown, otherwise to terminate.

Motivation

Some tools may handle errors gracefully and raise a custom exception with details on how the agent can fix its mistakes. In those cases we want the agent to retry. When successful though, we want the chain to end. This behaviour is not currently possible, its either all or nothing.

Proposal (If applicable)

No response

[pooriaPoorsarvi]

Right now, the only ways to force the agent to stop are the following (although feel free to correct me if I'm missing methods):

1. Use return_direct (limited by the fact that errors and results from tools will always be returned as a string, so there is no way to distinguish between them for stopping, especially if you want the agent to be able to respond back to the errors, which require them to be parsed as strings)
2. Using exceptions as signals to stop (limited by their effects on other tools and callbacks. for example, tracking tools like Arize)

I think for the first method, other people have had this problem as well, as seen on : #10714

Having an endpoint on the agent excutor that can be called at any point which would stop the chain, could help with this issue. I have a solution available at: 5085990

This would require less change (which would make it backward compatible) as it would not need a revamp of how the tools return (for example, changing from strings to objects with flags). It would also allow the chain designer to force terminate at any point they want.

I will send an MR soon.

[pooriaPoorsarvi]

MR was sent in: #22327