asyncio.create_task doesn't accept async_generator_asend objects

[kumaraditya303]

The following code fails to typecheck with mypy but works just fine at runtime.

import asyncio
from typing import AsyncGenerator


async def func() -> AsyncGenerator[int, None]:
 yield 1


async def main() -> None:
 a = func()
 print(await asyncio.create_task(a.asend(None)))

asyncio.run(main())

Error:

❯ mypy main.py
main.py:11: error: Argument 1 to "create_task" has incompatible type "Awaitable[int]"; expected "Union[Generator[Any, None, <nothing>], Coroutine[Any, Any, <nothing>]]" [arg-type]
main.py:11: error: Argument 1 to "create_task" has incompatible type "Awaitable[int]"; expected "Union[Generator[Any, None, object], Coroutine[Any, Any, object]]" [arg-type]
Found 2 errors in 1 file (checked 1 source file)

mypy version: mypy 1.0.0 (compiled: yes)

[kumaraditya303]

cc @AlexWaygood

[srittau]

@kumaraditya303 Could you give the error message, and the line the error appears in? Also, which mypy version are you using?

[kumaraditya303]

@srittau Updated comment to include details.

[AlexWaygood]

Here's a mypy playground link showing that it also reproduces on mypy 1.3.0. The cause of the error is that our stubs for asyncio.create_task say that it expects a generator or a coroutine, and our stubs for typing.AsyncGenerator.asend say that that method returns Awaitable[T_co] (not Coroutine[Any, Any, int] or Generator[Any, Any, int]).

Our annotations for asyncio.create_task look correct to me:

typeshed/stdlib/asyncio/tasks.pyi

Lines 314 to 321 in 2d5dafa

	if sys.version_info >= (3, 11):
	def create_task(coro: _CoroutineLike[_T], *, name: str | None = None, context: Context | None = None) -> Task[_T]: ...
	elif sys.version_info >= (3, 8):
	def create_task(coro: _CoroutineLike[_T], *, name: str | None = None) -> Task[_T]: ...
	else:
	def create_task(coro: _CoroutineLike[_T]) -> Task[_T]: ...

This leaves two possible fixes on the table:

1. Maybe typing.AsyncGenerator.asend() should be a coroutine function (or should be typed as returning a coroutine) in the stub, not a synchronous function that returns an awaitable. Here's what it is now:
   

   typeshed/stdlib/typing.pyi

   Lines 429 to 430 in 2d5dafa

   	@abstractmethod
   	def asend(self, __value: _T_contra) -> Awaitable[_T_co]: ...

   Note, however, that we previously made AsyncGenerator.asend a coroutine function in Use async def instead of def ... -> Awaitable in typing #7105. We then reverted that in Improve various signatures that shouldn't be async def, but currently are #7491. So there's some complicated history there.

2. Maybe mypy should infer the return type of async-generator functions to be instances of types.AsyncGeneratorType, rather than typing.AsyncGenerator, since types.AsyncGeneratorType is typed as returning a Coroutine in our stubs currently:
   

   typeshed/stdlib/types.pyi

   Line 379 in 2d5dafa

   def asend(self, __val: _T_contra) -> Coroutine[Any, Any, _T_co]: ...

   Currently, if you try giving an async generator function types.AsyncGeneratorType as the return type, mypy gives you this response:

   from types import AsyncGeneratorType
   
   async def func() -> AsyncGeneratorType[int, None]: # error: The return type of an async generator function should be "AsyncGenerator" or one of its supertypes [misc]
    yield 1

   That's not a change we'd be able to make here, though; mypy would have to make that change.

[AlexWaygood]

I'm curious if @graingert has any thoughts on the best way to resolve this, as he was involved in the discussion around #7491 and helped review that PR!

[graingert]

AsyncGenerator defines an interface based on returning awaitable objects and not coroutines so it makes sense to me that people should annotate their async def generators used with create_task with AsyncGeneratorType