fix: surface reasoning_content when content is empty (thinking models) (#1233)

Thinking models served via llama.cpp without --reasoning-format none
(e.g. Qwen3, DeepSeek-R1) route all tokens into reasoning_content and
return content="". Two call paths were silently broken:

- llm_call / llm_call_async (non-streaming): hard-keyed
  data["choices"][0]["message"]["content"] raises KeyError or returns
  empty string, discarding the entire response.

- stream_agent_loop end-of-round fallback: when full_response is empty
  but round_reasoning has content, the existing code replaced the
  response with the generic empty-response error message, discarding
  all reasoning tokens that were correctly accumulated during streaming.

Fix: in both non-streaming paths use msg.get("content") or
msg.get("reasoning_content") or "". In the streaming fallback, surface
round_reasoning as the answer before falling through to the error path.

src/agent_loop.py

@@ -1314,6 +1314,30 @@ async def _run_verifier_subagent(
     return [r.strip() for r in reasons.split(";") if r.strip()]
 
 
+def _empty_response_fallback(
+    full_response: str,
+    round_reasoning: str,
+    tool_events: list,
+) -> tuple:
+    """Return (final_response, sse_chunk_or_none) for the end-of-loop empty-response guard.
+
+    When a thinking model routes all tokens to reasoning_content (leaving
+    content=""), full_response is empty but round_reasoning has content.
+    The reasoning was already streamed as {thinking:true} chunks — do not
+    re-emit it as a normal delta.  Just persist it and yield nothing.
+
+    Returns:
+        (final_response: str, chunk: str | None)
+            chunk is the SSE string to yield, or None if nothing should be emitted.
+    """
+    if full_response.strip() or tool_events:
+        return full_response, None
+    if round_reasoning.strip():
+        return round_reasoning, None
+    _error_msg = "The model returned an empty response. Please try again or switch to a different model."
+    return _error_msg, f'data: {json.dumps({"delta": _error_msg})}\n\n'
+
+
 async def stream_agent_loop(
     endpoint_url: str,
     model: str,
@@ -2225,10 +2249,11 @@ async def stream_agent_loop(
 
     # If the response is completely empty and no tools were executed,
     # yield a fallback message so the user is not left hanging.
-    if not full_response.strip() and not tool_events:
+    full_response, _fallback_chunk = _empty_response_fallback(
-        _error_msg = "The model returned an empty response. Please try again or switch to a different model."
+        full_response, round_reasoning, tool_events
-        yield f'data: {json.dumps({"delta": _error_msg})}\n\n'
+    )
-        full_response = _error_msg
+    if _fallback_chunk:
+        yield _fallback_chunk
 
     # --- Final metrics ---
     total_duration = time.time() - total_start

src/llm_core.py

@@ -860,7 +860,8 @@ def llm_call(url: str, model: str, messages: List[Dict], temperature: float = LL
         elif provider == "ollama":
             response = _parse_ollama_response(data)
         else:
-            response = data["choices"][0]["message"]["content"]
+            msg = data["choices"][0]["message"]
+            response = msg.get("content") or msg.get("reasoning_content") or ""
         _set_cached_response(cache_key, response)
         return response
     except Exception:
@@ -997,7 +998,8 @@ async def llm_call_async(
                 elif provider == "ollama":
                     response = _parse_ollama_response(data)
                 else:
-                    response = data["choices"][0]["message"]["content"]
+                    msg = data["choices"][0]["message"]
+                    response = msg.get("content") or msg.get("reasoning_content") or ""
                 _set_cached_response(cache_key, response)
                 return response
             except Exception:

tests/test_llm_core_reasoning_content_fallback.py

@@ -0,0 +1,143 @@
+"""Regression tests for reasoning_content fallback in non-streaming paths.
+
+Covers the five cases requested during PR review:
+  1. llm_call (sync): content="" + reasoning_content="..." → returns reasoning text
+  2. llm_call_async (async): same
+  3. Normal content wins over reasoning_content when both present
+  4. Streaming agent path: reasoning-only round does NOT emit the generic error
+  5. Streaming agent path: reasoning tokens are NOT duplicated as normal answer text
+"""
+import asyncio
+import json
+
+import httpx
+import pytest
+
+from src import llm_core
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Helpers: fake httpx responses for the non-streaming llm_call* paths
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def _sync_response(payload: dict) -> httpx.Response:
+    req = httpx.Request("POST", "http://test/v1/chat/completions")
+    return httpx.Response(200, request=req, json=payload)
+
+
+def _openai_msg(content, reasoning_content=None):
+    msg = {"content": content}
+    if reasoning_content is not None:
+        msg["reasoning_content"] = reasoning_content
+    return {"choices": [{"message": msg}]}
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# 1. llm_call (sync): empty content → falls back to reasoning_content
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def test_llm_call_returns_reasoning_content_when_content_empty(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        llm_core.httpx, "post",
+        lambda *a, **kw: _sync_response(_openai_msg("", "I reasoned through it")),
+    )
+    result = llm_core.llm_call(
+        "http://test/v1", "qwen3-8b",
+        [{"role": "user", "content": "think"}],
+    )
+    assert result == "I reasoned through it"
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# 2. llm_call_async (async): empty content → falls back to reasoning_content
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def test_llm_call_async_returns_reasoning_content_when_content_empty(monkeypatch):
+    class _FakeAsyncClient:
+        async def post(self, *a, **kw):
+            req = httpx.Request("POST", "http://test-async/v1/chat/completions")
+            return httpx.Response(200, request=req,
+                                  json=_openai_msg("", "async reasoning text"))
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(llm_core, "_get_http_client",
+                        lambda: _FakeAsyncClient())
+
+    result = asyncio.run(llm_core.llm_call_async(
+        "http://test-async/v1", "qwen3-8b",
+        [{"role": "user", "content": "think"}],
+    ))
+    assert result == "async reasoning text"
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# 3. Normal content takes priority over reasoning_content when both present
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def test_llm_call_content_wins_over_reasoning_content(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        llm_core.httpx, "post",
+        lambda *a, **kw: _sync_response(
+            _openai_msg("Normal answer", "some reasoning")
+        ),
+    )
+    result = llm_core.llm_call(
+        "http://test/v1", "some-model",
+        [{"role": "user", "content": "hi"}],
+    )
+    assert result == "Normal answer"
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Streaming agent path tests (4 and 5)
+# These import and test _empty_response_fallback — the real production helper
+# extracted from stream_agent_loop.  If the fallback branch is reverted or
+# changed, these tests will fail.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+import sys
+from unittest.mock import MagicMock
+
+# Mock heavy DB/tool deps before importing agent_loop
+for _mod in [
+    "sqlalchemy", "sqlalchemy.orm", "sqlalchemy.ext",
+    "sqlalchemy.ext.declarative", "sqlalchemy.ext.hybrid",
+    "sqlalchemy.sql", "sqlalchemy.sql.expression",
+    "src.database", "src.agent_tools",
+    "core.models", "core.database",
+]:
+    if _mod not in sys.modules:
+        sys.modules[_mod] = MagicMock()
+
+from src.agent_loop import _empty_response_fallback  # noqa: E402
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# 4. Reasoning-only round: generic error is suppressed
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def test_stream_agent_reasoning_only_does_not_emit_error():
+    final_response, chunk = _empty_response_fallback(
+        full_response="",
+        round_reasoning="I reasoned carefully",
+        tool_events=[],
+    )
+    assert chunk is None, "Must not emit any SSE chunk when reasoning is present"
+    assert "The model returned an empty response" not in (chunk or "")
+    assert final_response == "I reasoned carefully"
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# 5. Reasoning tokens are NOT re-emitted as a normal answer delta
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def test_stream_agent_reasoning_not_duplicated_as_normal_delta():
+    reasoning_text = "my internal reasoning"
+    _, chunk = _empty_response_fallback(
+        full_response="",
+        round_reasoning=reasoning_text,
+        tool_events=[],
+    )
+    # chunk must be None — the reasoning was already sent as {thinking:true}
+    assert chunk is None, (
+        f"reasoning text was re-emitted as a normal delta chunk: {chunk!r}"
+    )