fix(go-adk): surface the sub-agent's ask_user question in RemoteHitlHint by vramahandry · Pull Request #2475 · kagent-dev/kagent

vramahandry · 2026-08-18T12:40:15Z

Summary

RemoteHitlHint() builds the hint text shown to a human when a sub-agent's own HITL pause bubbles up to the parent agent. Today it only lists the paused tool's name (e.g. ask_user) — never the actual question — even though AskUserRequest.Questions (already threaded through VisibleTools() into HitlTool.Args["questions"]) has the real content right there.

Before: "Remote agent 'github_agent' requires approval for tool(s): ask_user"
After: "Remote agent 'github_agent' asks: What is the GitHub owner/org for the repo?"

Real tool-approval hints (the non-ask_user case) are unaffected — same wording as before, existing TestBuildRemoteHitlStateAndHint still passes unchanged.

Discovered while building an external A2A chat bridge that correctly renders every other kagent HITL flow (direct tool approval, direct ask_user) from the same session — this was the one case where the confirmation card reaching a downstream A2A client carried no actionable information, because the hint itself never had it. Confirmed by inspecting the sub-agent's own ADK session directly (GET /api/sessions/<id>), where the real question is visible in adk_request_confirmation — it's just discarded before reaching RemoteHitlHint.

Fixes #2473

Changes

go/adk/pkg/a2a/hitl.go: new askUserQuestionText() helper extracts question text from an ask_user HitlTool's args; RemoteHitlHint() uses it when present, falling back to the existing tool-name-only wording otherwise.
go/adk/pkg/a2a/hitl_test.go: new TestBuildRemoteHitlStateAndHintAskUser covering the fixed behavior.

Test plan

go build ./adk/... — clean
go test ./adk/... — all packages pass (a2a, agent, app, tools, etc.)
gofmt -l / go vet ./adk/pkg/a2a/... — clean
Existing TestBuildRemoteHitlStateAndHint (tool-approval case) passes unchanged

supreme-gg-gg

This fix makes sense to me, two comments and this is ready to go

askUserQuestionText() type-asserted a nested ask_user HitlTool's Args["questions"] as []map[string]any, but Args round-trips through JSON into a plain map[string]any, which decodes "questions" as []any instead — silently dropping the question for nested (two-level) ask_user pauses. AskUserRequest.Questions is already correctly typed in both the direct and nested case (see BuildHITLStatusMessage), so read it directly instead of re-deriving from VisibleTools() output. Addresses review feedback from supreme-gg-gg on kagent-dev#2475. Signed-off-by: Vivien Ramahandry <56304555+vramahandry@users.noreply.github.com>

supreme-gg-gg

lgtm, thanks!

supreme-gg-gg · 2026-08-19T14:36:19Z

 	if state == nil {
 		return "Remote agent requires human input before continuing."
 	}
+	// AskUserRequest.Questions carries the real question text whether or not


nit: this inline comment seems a bit too long (but not worth blocking on this)

Trimmed in 40bec6b, along with the similarly verbose comments added alongside it.

…hitl_hint (#2495) ## Summary `remote_hitl_hint()` in the Python `kagent-adk` runtime builds the hint text shown to a human when a sub-agent's own HITL pause bubbles up to the parent agent. Unlike the Go runtime's `RemoteHitlHint()`, it only ever lists the paused tool's *name* (e.g. `ask_user`) — never the actual question — even though `AskUserRequest.questions` (set directly on the request in `build_hitl_status_message`, whether or not `nested` is populated) has the real content right there. - Before: `"Remote agent 'github_agent' requires approval for tool(s): ask_user"` - After: `"Remote agent 'github_agent' asks: What is the GitHub owner/org for the repo?"` Real tool-approval hints (the non-`ask_user` case) are unaffected. This is the Python-runtime counterpart to #2475, which fixed the same class of bug in `go/adk/pkg/a2a/hitl.go`. The Go and Python runtimes maintain independent implementations of this HITL hint logic, and the Python side never had question-surfacing added — so a parent agent built on `kagent-adk` still drops the question today even after #2475 merges. Unlike the Go fix, there's no `[]any` vs `[]map[string]any]` JSON-decode subtlety to worry about here: Pydantic's `HitlTool.args: dict[str, Any]` keeps nested question dicts intact, so reading `AskUserRequest.questions` directly is straightforward in both the direct and nested case. Fixes #2473 ## Changes - `python/packages/kagent-adk/src/kagent/adk/_hitl.py`: `remote_hitl_hint()` now checks `AskUserRequest.questions` first and returns `"Remote agent '{name}' asks: {question}"` when present, falling back to the existing tool-name-only wording otherwise. - `python/packages/kagent-adk/tests/unittests/test_hitl.py`: adds `test_remote_hitl_hint_tool_approval`, `test_remote_hitl_hint_ask_user`, and `test_remote_hitl_hint_ask_user_nested` (the last covering a two-level nested `ask_user` pause). ## Test plan - [x] `uv run pytest packages/kagent-adk/tests/unittests/test_hitl.py` — 18 passed (3 new) - [x] `uv run ruff format --diff` / `uv run ruff check` — clean - [x] Existing tests unaffected — no changes to tool-approval hint wording Signed-off-by: Vivien Ramahandry <56304555+vramahandry@users.noreply.github.com>

supreme-gg-gg · 2026-08-20T16:05:42Z

@vramahandry this commit is not properly signed off: 40bec6b you need to do that for DCO to pass

…hitl_hint (kagent-dev#2495) ## Summary `remote_hitl_hint()` in the Python `kagent-adk` runtime builds the hint text shown to a human when a sub-agent's own HITL pause bubbles up to the parent agent. Unlike the Go runtime's `RemoteHitlHint()`, it only ever lists the paused tool's *name* (e.g. `ask_user`) — never the actual question — even though `AskUserRequest.questions` (set directly on the request in `build_hitl_status_message`, whether or not `nested` is populated) has the real content right there. - Before: `"Remote agent 'github_agent' requires approval for tool(s): ask_user"` - After: `"Remote agent 'github_agent' asks: What is the GitHub owner/org for the repo?"` Real tool-approval hints (the non-`ask_user` case) are unaffected. This is the Python-runtime counterpart to kagent-dev#2475, which fixed the same class of bug in `go/adk/pkg/a2a/hitl.go`. The Go and Python runtimes maintain independent implementations of this HITL hint logic, and the Python side never had question-surfacing added — so a parent agent built on `kagent-adk` still drops the question today even after kagent-dev#2475 merges. Unlike the Go fix, there's no `[]any` vs `[]map[string]any]` JSON-decode subtlety to worry about here: Pydantic's `HitlTool.args: dict[str, Any]` keeps nested question dicts intact, so reading `AskUserRequest.questions` directly is straightforward in both the direct and nested case. Fixes kagent-dev#2473 ## Changes - `python/packages/kagent-adk/src/kagent/adk/_hitl.py`: `remote_hitl_hint()` now checks `AskUserRequest.questions` first and returns `"Remote agent '{name}' asks: {question}"` when present, falling back to the existing tool-name-only wording otherwise. - `python/packages/kagent-adk/tests/unittests/test_hitl.py`: adds `test_remote_hitl_hint_tool_approval`, `test_remote_hitl_hint_ask_user`, and `test_remote_hitl_hint_ask_user_nested` (the last covering a two-level nested `ask_user` pause). ## Test plan - [x] `uv run pytest packages/kagent-adk/tests/unittests/test_hitl.py` — 18 passed (3 new) - [x] `uv run ruff format --diff` / `uv run ruff check` — clean - [x] Existing tests unaffected — no changes to tool-approval hint wording Signed-off-by: Vivien Ramahandry <56304555+vramahandry@users.noreply.github.com>

RemoteHitlHint() only listed the paused tool's name ('ask_user'), never the actual question text, even though HitlTool.Args already carries it via VisibleTools(). A human relayed a bubbled-up sub-agent HITL pause saw 'requires approval for tool(s): ask_user' with no way to know what was actually being asked. Fixes kagent-dev#2473 Signed-off-by: Vivien Ramahandry <56304555+vramahandry@users.noreply.github.com>

askUserQuestionText() type-asserted a nested ask_user HitlTool's Args["questions"] as []map[string]any, but Args round-trips through JSON into a plain map[string]any, which decodes "questions" as []any instead — silently dropping the question for nested (two-level) ask_user pauses. AskUserRequest.Questions is already correctly typed in both the direct and nested case (see BuildHITLStatusMessage), so read it directly instead of re-deriving from VisibleTools() output. Addresses review feedback from supreme-gg-gg on kagent-dev#2475. Signed-off-by: Vivien Ramahandry <56304555+vramahandry@users.noreply.github.com>

supreme-gg-gg flagged the inline comment as too long; tightened it and the similarly verbose doc/test comments added in the same change while keeping the JSON round-trip explanation. Signed-off-by: Vivien Ramahandry <56304555+vramahandry@users.noreply.github.com>

vramahandry · 2026-09-02T16:10:01Z

Hello @supreme-gg-gg , sorry I forgot the DCO.
Now it seems ok. Thank you !

vramahandry · 2026-09-08T08:20:45Z

Hello @supreme-gg-gg is there any issue of not being merged ?

vramahandry · 2026-09-09T13:40:09Z

Hello @EItanya do you know when it will be released to a tagged version ?

EItanya · 2026-09-09T14:11:44Z

Hello @EItanya do you know when it will be released to a tagged version ?

If you need this on 0.10 you will need to backport it. Hopefully we'll be starting beta releases on main early next week

vramahandry · 2026-09-10T08:09:27Z

Hello @EItanya do you know when it will be released to a tagged version ?

If you need this on 0.10 you will need to backport it. Hopefully we'll be starting beta releases on main early next week

How I can backport myself ? Do I create a new tag on my fork from the latest tag v0.10.1 ?

EItanya · 2026-09-10T11:40:40Z

Hello @EItanya do you know when it will be released to a tagged version ?

If you need this on 0.10 you will need to backport it. Hopefully we'll be starting beta releases on main early next week

How I can backport myself ? Do I create a new tag on my fork from the latest tag v0.10.1 ?

Open a PR against release-v0.10.x

vramahandry · 2026-09-15T08:44:41Z

Hello @EItanya,
Looked into backporting this (and #2495) to release/v0.10.x. Not straightforward, unfortunately: both fixes sit on top of #2396 (A2A HITL extension rewrite), which itself depends on #2354 (A2A v1.0 migration) — neither of which was ever backported to release/v0.10.x. That branch still runs the pre-extension HITL model (adk_request_confirmation DataParts), so _hitl.py / the current hitl.go don't exist there in a form these commits can apply to.

Tried cherry-picking #2396 alone onto release/v0.10.x as a test — 20+ conflicting files across Go, Python, and the UI (agent executor, remote A2A tool, event converter, the whole chat UI). It's a real architecture migration, not a mechanical backport.

If this is needed on 0.10.x, the options are either porting the A2A v1.0 + HITL extension migration itself (multi-day effort, real risk to the release branch), or a small hand-written fix against the old adk_request_confirmation hint logic that gets the same user-visible result without the migration.

vramahandry requested a review from supreme-gg-gg as a code owner August 18, 2026 12:40

vramahandry force-pushed the fix/remote-hitl-hint-ask-user-question branch from be0a702 to eb714e3 Compare August 18, 2026 12:52

vramahandry mentioned this pull request Aug 18, 2026

[BUG] RemoteHitlHint drops the sub-agent's actual ask_user question, only names the tool #2473

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github-actions Bot added the bug Something isn't working label Aug 18, 2026

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Comment thread go/adk/pkg/a2a/hitl.go Outdated

Comment thread go/adk/pkg/a2a/hitl_test.go

vramahandry force-pushed the fix/remote-hitl-hint-ask-user-question branch from eb714e3 to 9c3ac9e Compare August 19, 2026 08:12

vramahandry requested a review from supreme-gg-gg August 19, 2026 08:18

supreme-gg-gg previously approved these changes Aug 19, 2026

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vramahandry dismissed supreme-gg-gg’s stale review via 40bec6b August 20, 2026 07:58

supreme-gg-gg approved these changes Aug 20, 2026

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supreme-gg-gg mentioned this pull request Aug 28, 2026

fix(hitl): compose the same pause text in every runtime and always declare the extension #2472

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vramahandry force-pushed the fix/remote-hitl-hint-ask-user-question branch from 2675a2b to bc38318 Compare September 2, 2026 16:05

vramahandry requested review from a team, Charlesthebird and peterj as code owners September 2, 2026 16:05

vramahandry force-pushed the fix/remote-hitl-hint-ask-user-question branch from bc38318 to 1b8ac72 Compare September 2, 2026 16:07

vramahandry added 3 commits September 2, 2026 18:08

vramahandry force-pushed the fix/remote-hitl-hint-ask-user-question branch from 1b8ac72 to 3a338cf Compare September 2, 2026 16:08

vramahandry requested a review from supreme-gg-gg September 2, 2026 16:09

EItanya approved these changes Sep 2, 2026

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EItanya added this pull request to the merge queue Sep 8, 2026

Merged via the queue into kagent-dev:main with commit 9e67435 Sep 8, 2026
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vramahandry commented Aug 18, 2026

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