Python: Refactor workflow as agent pending request handling

[Tao Chen (TaoChenOSU)]

Motivation and Context

Function approval was not handled correctly when the approval comes from an agent within a workflow that is used as an agent.

Addresses #5654

Description

1. Add support for handling function approval requests coming from an agent within a workflow that is used as agent and hosted.
2. function_approval_request will now pass through while other request events will be serialized to function_call contents.
3. Simplify the function approval flow for workflow as agent.
4. Add tests.

Old data flow:

1. An approval request emitted from an agent in a workflow
2. AgentExecutor captures the request and emits it as a request info event
3. WorkflowAgent captures the request info event, serializes it in a function call content argument and wraps it in an approval request
5. Client captures the request, approval or denies, and sends the response to the workflow as an agent
6. WorkflowAgent gets the response, unwraps it, and deserializes the argument string to get the response
7. WorkflowAgent then sends the response to the underlying workflow

New data flow:

1. An approval request emitted from an agent in a workflow
2. AgentExecutor captures the request and emits it as a request info event
3. WorkflowAgent captures the request info event and unwraps the approval request
4. Client captures the request, approval or denies, and sends the response to the workflow as an agent
5. WorkflowAgent then sends the response to the underlying workflow

Contribution Checklist

• The code builds clean without any errors or warnings
• The PR follows the Contribution Guidelines
• All unit tests pass, and I have added new tests where possible
• Is this a breaking change? If yes, add "[BREAKING]" prefix to the title of the PR.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR refactors Python workflow-as-agent “pending request” handling so tool-approval flows (FunctionApprovalRequest/Response) round-trip correctly across WorkflowAgent, AgentExecutor, and the Foundry ResponsesHostServer HTTP pipeline. It also introduces a Workflow.status property to expose run-level state transitions.

Changes:

• Add Workflow.status (mirrors emitted status events) and new tests covering status transitions, including pending-request scenarios.
• Update WorkflowAgent/AgentExecutor to route tool-approval requests via request_info using the underlying approval request id (so pending request IDs match what the caller echoes back).
• Update Foundry hosting response conversion to persist approval requests and rehydrate them when converting mcp_approval_response items; add end-to-end hosting tests for workflow agents with approvals.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 9 out of 10 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
python/samples/02-agents/tools/function_tool_with_approval.py	Disables the streaming demo invocation in main().
python/packages/foundry_hosting/tests/test_responses.py	Adds end-to-end HTTP tests for hosting WorkflowAgent with tool approvals (streaming and non-streaming).
python/packages/foundry_hosting/agent_framework_foundry_hosting/_responses.py	Plumbs approval storage through input/output conversion so approval responses can be reconstructed.
python/packages/core/tests/workflow/test_workflow_status.py	New tests for the new Workflow.status property across success/failure/pending-request flows.
python/packages/core/tests/workflow/test_workflow_agent.py	Updates request-info/tool-approval expectations and adds tests ensuring raw tool-approval content forwards unchanged.
python/packages/core/tests/workflow/test_agent_executor.py	Adds regression tests for “double-emission” of approval payload and request-id matching.
python/packages/core/tests/core/test_skills.py	Minor parentheses cleanup in async awaits.
python/packages/core/agent_framework/_workflows/_workflow.py	Implements run-level status tracking (Workflow.status) and updates during execution.
python/packages/core/agent_framework/_workflows/_agent.py	Refactors WorkflowAgent continuation logic to depend on Workflow.status and adjusts request-info conversion.
python/packages/core/agent_framework/_workflows/_agent_executor.py	Adjusts approval request handling to avoid double-emitting approval payloads and passes explicit request_id.
python/packages/core/agent_framework/_skills.py	Minor formatting of tool descriptions.

[github-actions]

Automated Code Review

Reviewers: 4 | Confidence: 62% | Result: All clear

Reviewed: Correctness, Security Reliability, Test Coverage, Design Approach

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Automated review by TaoChenOSU's agents

[Evan Mattson (moonbox3)]

Python Test Coverage Report •

File	Stmts	Miss	Cover	Missing
packages/core/agent_framework/_workflows
_agent.py	324	31	90%	69, 73, 114–115, 264, 277, 344, 355, 357, 413, 479, 549, 627, 657, 685, 733, 742, 803, 810, 816–817, 828, 860, 867, 888, 897, 901, 903–905, 912
_agent_executor.py	208	17	91%	166, 190, 231, 255, 275–276, 356–358, 360, 370–371, 494, 521–522, 594, 600
_workflow.py	347	24	93%	59, 61, 66, 90, 95, 156, 192, 416–418, 420–421, 445, 479, 648, 859, 880, 928, 940, 946, 951, 971–973
packages/foundry_hosting/agent_framework_foundry_hosting
_responses.py	770	85	88%	186–189, 254, 314–315, 329, 332–333, 381–382, 392, 429, 484, 498, 549, 552–556, 575, 578, 584, 586, 645, 1017, 1030, 1499–1501, 1503, 1550–1551, 1553–1554, 1556–1557, 1559–1560, 1565, 1574, 1577–1579, 1581, 1595, 1608, 1653–1654, 1656, 1661–1665, 1667, 1674–1675, 1677–1678, 1684, 1686–1690, 1697, 1703, 1725, 1731, 1737, 1739, 1741–1744, 1752, 1754, 1805–1807, 1817–1818
TOTAL	38285	4397	88%

Python Unit Test Overview

Tests	Skipped	Failures	Errors	Time
7666	34 💤	0 ❌	0 🔥	2m 12s ⏱️