`GoogleSearchAgentTool` parallel responses fail to serialize deferred `GroundingMetadata` (`MockValSer`)

[andrewrfitz]

🔴 Required Information

Describe the Bug:

AgentTool(propagate_grounding_metadata=True)—which GoogleSearchAgentTool
enables—stores a raw google.genai.types.GroundingMetadata instance in session
state under temp:_adk_grounding_metadata. That value reaches
EventActions.state_delta, which is typed as dict[str, Any], so event
serialization relies on Pydantic's duck-typed serialization of the value.

google-genai 2.18.0 and newer configure their generated models with
defer_build=True. A GroundingMetadata produced by nested validation (for
example, as part of Candidate validation, as happens for model responses)
leaves GroundingMetadata.__pydantic_serializer__ as a MockValSer.
Serializing the event then raises:

pydantic_core._pydantic_core.PydanticSerializationError: Error calling function `_serialize_state_delta`: TypeError: 'MockValSer' object is not an instance of 'SchemaSerializer'

The _make_json_serializable fallback introduced by #4748 does not recover
from this case. pydantic_core.to_jsonable_python(value, serialize_unknown=True) raises the same TypeError before
serialize_unknown can apply, so the exception escapes
_serialize_state_delta.

This surfaces in merge_parallel_function_response_events in
google/adk/flows/llm_flows/functions.py, which calls
event.actions.model_dump(exclude_none=True, by_alias=True). When a search call
runs in parallel with another function call, the merge raises and aborts the
invocation.

This is related to #4748 and prior grounding-metadata persistence reports such
as #5840, but it is a distinct failure mode: the value is a valid Pydantic
model whose deferred serializer has not been built.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install the affected versions:

   python -m pip install "google-adk==2.7.1" "google-genai==2.19.0" "pydantic==2.13.4"

2. Run the snippet under Minimal Reproduction Code below. It requires no
   model call or API key.

3. Observe the PydanticSerializationError above.

Expected Behavior:

Serializing an event whose state_delta contains grounding metadata propagated
by ADK succeeds, and parallel function-response merging preserves both tool
results. ADK-created state should not depend on whether a deferred class
serializer happened to be built earlier in the process.

Observed Behavior:

EventActions.model_dump(...) raises from
merge_parallel_function_response_events, and the invocation terminates
without a final response.

Environment Details:

• ADK Library Version: 2.7.1 (also reproduced on 2.7.0)
• Desktop OS: macOS 26.6 (also reproduced on Linux)
• Python Version: 3.14.6 (also reproduced on 3.12.6)
• google-genai: 2.19.0 (also reproduced on 2.18.1)
• pydantic: 2.13.4 / pydantic-core: 2.46.4

Model Information:

• Are you using LiteLLM: No
• Which model is being used: N/A—the minimal reproduction performs no model
  call and requires no API key.

---

🟡 Optional Information

Regression:

This is a google-genai 2.18.0 regression:

• google-genai==2.17.0: nested GroundingMetadata has a built
  SchemaSerializer; the merge succeeds.
• google-genai==2.18.0: the shared model config includes defer_build=True;
  nested GroundingMetadata retains a MockValSer; the merge fails.

The failure also reproduces with google-adk==2.6.0 plus
google-genai==2.18.1, so it is not specific to ADK 2.7.x. ADK is affected
because it propagates the raw deferred model through state_delta and then
serializes that state while merging parallel tool responses.

Logs:

Failed to serialize `state_delta`; some values are not JSON-serializable and
will be replaced with a string representation in the persisted event.

Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "google/adk/events/event_actions.py", line 106, in _serialize_state_delta
 return cast(dict[str, Any], handler(value))
TypeError: 'MockValSer' object is not an instance of 'SchemaSerializer'

During fallback handling, `to_jsonable_python(...)` raises the same TypeError.
The resulting PydanticSerializationError escapes the parallel-response merge.

Additional Context:

Two details make this easy to miss in tests:

• Constructing types.GroundingMetadata(...) directly builds the serializer as
  a side effect. Nested validation via types.Candidate.model_validate(...),
  which mirrors the response-validation path, leaves the MockValSer.
• Once anything else in the process builds this class serializer, the failure
  disappears for subsequent calls.

Possible fixes, in rough order of narrowness:

1. Build types.GroundingMetadata before ADK propagates or serializes it, for
   example with types.GroundingMetadata.model_rebuild(force=True). Removing
   defer_build for this model in google-genai would also resolve the root
   behavior.
2. Store grounding metadata in state_delta in serialized form, then
   revalidate it where base_llm_flow attaches it to the response.
3. Make _make_json_serializable resilient per value so the fallback cannot
   itself abort event serialization. This is defense in depth and would
   degrade the metadata rather than preserve it.

Happy to send a PR for the preferred direction.

Minimal Reproduction Code:

from google.adk.events import Event, EventActions
from google.adk.flows.llm_flows.functions import (
 merge_parallel_function_response_events,
)
from google.genai import types


candidate = types.Candidate.model_validate(
 {"groundingMetadata": {"webSearchQueries": ["some query"]}}
)
print(type(types.GroundingMetadata.__pydantic_serializer__).__name__)
# MockValSer


def response_event(name: str, state_delta: dict) -> Event:
 return Event(
 invocation_id="inv",
 author="my_agent",
 content=types.Content(
 role="user",
 parts=[
 types.Part.from_function_response(
 name=name,
 response={"ok": True},
 )
 ],
 ),
 actions=EventActions(state_delta=state_delta),
 )


events = [
 response_event(
 "search_agent",
 {"temp:_adk_grounding_metadata": candidate.grounding_metadata},
 ),
 response_event("other_tool", {"temp:other": 1}),
]

merge_parallel_function_response_events(events)
# PydanticSerializationError

The fallback also fails directly:

from pydantic_core import to_jsonable_python

to_jsonable_python(
 {"k": candidate.grounding_metadata},
 serialize_unknown=True,
)
# TypeError: 'MockValSer' object is not an instance of 'SchemaSerializer'

How often has this issue occurred?:

• Always (100%) when a deferred GroundingMetadata is present in one of two
  or more function-response events being merged.

[ALDRIN121]

Great analysis — the defer_build/MockValSer failure mode is nasty because it only surfaces in parallel merges.

I see PR #6849 fixes this case at the source (recursive model_rebuild for deferred Pydantic models), but the issue's own observation is that the _make_json_serializable fallback "does not recover from this case" — to_jsonable_python(value, serialize_unknown=True) raises before serialize_unknown can apply. So any value that trips pydantic-core still aborts _serialize_state_delta and kills the invocation.

I'd like to contribute the complementary defense-in-depth slice: make _make_json_serializable per-value resilient (walk dicts/lists, convert each leaf under try/except, fall back to repr for values that raise) so the fallback can never crash event serialization, plus a unit test with a deferred-serializer model. Zero overlap with #6849's change — it hardens exactly the fallback path the issue calls out, whatever the next exotic value turns out to be.

@andrewrfitz — happy to coordinate: if you'd rather keep #6849 self-contained I'll hold and open this as a follow-up once yours lands, or open it alongside now if the maintainers prefer the split.