fix(context_compressor): correct multimodal content handling in token estimation and secret redaction#14395
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… estimation and secret redaction
## Problem
Two related bugs affected users sending multimodal messages (text + images):
**Bug 1 — Wrong token estimation (`_find_tail_cut_by_tokens`, line ~1080)**
When a message's `content` field is a list (multimodal format), `len(content)`
returns the number of list elements (typically 1–3), not the character count.
A message with 4000 chars of text was estimated at ~10 tokens instead of ~1000,
causing the context compression boundary to be placed far too early — retaining
much less tail context than intended for vision-heavy conversations.
**Bug 2 — Secret redaction bypassed (`_serialize_for_summary`, line ~603)**
`redact_sensitive_text(msg.get("content") or "")` relies on a non-empty list
being truthy: a list is truthy so the `or ""` fallback is skipped and
`redact_sensitive_text` receives a `list` instead of a `str`. This means any
API keys or tokens embedded in the text parts of multimodal messages are
forwarded unredacted to the auxiliary summarisation model and persisted in the
compressed summary — a silent security regression for users of vision features.
## Fix
Both fixes follow the pattern already used correctly at line 478
(`_prune_old_tool_results`):
```python
content_len = (
sum(len(p.get("text", "")) if isinstance(p, dict) else len(str(p))
for p in raw_content)
if isinstance(raw_content, list)
else len(raw_content)
)
```
For redaction, text parts are individually redacted and joined; image parts
(no `"text"` key) contribute nothing to the summary text — consistent with
the existing serialisation behaviour.
## Tests
Five new tests in `TestMultimodalContent` cover:
- Token budget is exhausted by a large multimodal text part (not the list length)
- Image-only content does not crash and costs near-zero tokens
- Secrets in multimodal text parts are redacted before summary serialisation
- Image-only content serialises to an empty contribution without error
- Plain string content regression guard
Co-Authored-By: Tianye Song <songtianye1997@gmail.com>
Author
|
Closing this PR after closer analysis. Bug 1 (token estimation) is real but the impact is limited in practice. Bug 2 was overstated — redact_sensitive_text has an internal str() fallback so secrets are still redacted even when passed a list. The PR description exaggerated the security risk. Will revisit with a more carefully scoped fix if needed. |
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Summary
Two silent bugs in
agent/context_compressor.pyaffect all users sending multimodal (text + image) messages:Bug 1 — Wrong token estimation (
_find_tail_cut_by_tokens, ~line 1080)len(content)on a list returns the number of list elements (1–3), not the character count. A message with 4000 chars of text was estimated at ~10 tokens instead of ~1000. Result: the tail-protection boundary is placed far too early for vision-heavy conversations, discarding far more context than intended.Bug 2 — Secret redaction bypassed (
_serialize_for_summary, ~line 603)redact_sensitive_text(msg.get("content") or "")— a non-empty list is truthy, soor ""is skipped andredact_sensitive_textreceives alistinstead of astr. API keys or tokens in multimodal text parts are forwarded unredacted to the auxiliary summarisation model and persisted in the compressed summary.Fix
Both fixes apply the same pattern already used correctly at line 478 (
_prune_old_tool_results):Tests
Five new regression tests in
TestMultimodalContent:Test plan
uv run pytest tests/agent/test_context_compressor.py -q— 55 passed🤖 Generated with Claude Code