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fix(context_compressor): correct multimodal content handling in token estimation and secret redaction#14395

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fix(context_compressor): correct multimodal content handling in token estimation and secret redaction#14395
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sontianye:fix/context-compressor-multimodal-content

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Summary

Two silent bugs in agent/context_compressor.py affect 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, so or "" is skipped and redact_sensitive_text receives a list instead of a str. 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):

# Token estimation — Bug 1
raw_content = msg.get("content") or ""
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)
)
msg_tokens = content_len // _CHARS_PER_TOKEN + 10

# Redaction — Bug 2
raw_content = msg.get("content") or ""
if isinstance(raw_content, list):
    content = " ".join(
        redact_sensitive_text(p.get("text", ""))
        for p in raw_content
        if isinstance(p, dict) and p.get("type") == "text"
    )
else:
    content = redact_sensitive_text(raw_content)

Tests

Five new regression tests in TestMultimodalContent:

  • Token budget is exhausted by multimodal text content (not list element count)
  • Image-only content does not crash and costs ~zero tokens
  • Secrets in multimodal text parts are redacted before summary serialisation
  • Image-only content serialises gracefully to empty contribution
  • Plain string content regression guard (existing path unchanged)

Test plan

  • uv run pytest tests/agent/test_context_compressor.py -q — 55 passed

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

… 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>
@sontianye

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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.

@sontianye sontianye closed this Apr 23, 2026
@alt-glitch alt-glitch added type/security Security vulnerability or hardening P1 High — major feature broken, no workaround comp/agent Core agent loop, run_agent.py, prompt builder labels Apr 23, 2026
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comp/agent Core agent loop, run_agent.py, prompt builder P1 High — major feature broken, no workaround type/security Security vulnerability or hardening

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