fix(agents): suppress reasoning blocks from channel delivery by BinHPdev · Pull Request #18935 · openclaw/openclaw

BinHPdev · 2026-02-17T06:08:34Z

Summary

Suppress reasoning/thinking blocks from channel delivery (iMessage, Telegram, Discord, etc.) so internal chain-of-thought is never forwarded to end users.

Root Cause

Two code paths injected reasoning text into channel delivery:

Streaming path (handlers.messages.ts): shouldEmitReasoning gated on onBlockReply being truthy — meaning reasoning was emitted specifically when a channel callback existed. This is backwards: reasoning should be suppressed when a channel callback is present.
Final payload builder (payloads.ts): Unconditionally pushed formatted reasoning into replyItems when reasoningLevel === "on". This replyItems array feeds directly into channel delivery for all channels.

Changes

src/agents/pi-embedded-subscribe.handlers.messages.ts: Invert onBlockReply && to !onBlockReply && in shouldEmitReasoning condition, suppressing reasoning emission to channels while preserving non-channel behavior.
src/agents/pi-embedded-runner/run/payloads.ts: Remove unconditional reasoning push to replyItems and clean up unused imports (extractAssistantThinking, formatReasoningMessage).
src/agents/pi-embedded-runner/run/payloads.reasoning.test.ts: 2 tests verifying reasoning is not included in payloads and assistant answers still work normally.

Test plan

pnpm vitest run src/agents/pi-embedded-runner/ — 25 tests pass
Verify reasoning blocks no longer appear as messages in iMessage/Telegram/Discord when reasoningLevel: "on"

Fix #18667

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Greptile Summary

This PR fixes reasoning/thinking blocks leaking into channel messages (iMessage, Telegram, Discord) by suppressing them from two code paths:

Final payload builder (payloads.ts): cleanly removed reasoning from replyItems array
Streaming path (handlers.messages.ts): inverted condition but created contradictory logic where maybeEmitReasoning() still calls onBlockReply which no longer exists

Key issues:

The streaming path fix has a logic bug where the condition requires !onBlockReply but then tries to call onBlockReply?.(), effectively disabling reasoning emission (achieves the goal but via confusing dead code)
Existing test emits-reasoning-as-separate-message-enabled.e2e.test.ts expects the old behavior and will fail
PR only ran pi-embedded-runner/ tests, missing the failing test in pi-embedded-subscribe

Confidence Score: 2/5

not safe to merge - has logic bug and failing test
the streaming path contains contradictory logic (inverted condition but unchanged emission target) and an existing test will fail. while the goal is achieved (reasoning suppression), the implementation needs cleanup
src/agents/pi-embedded-subscribe.handlers.messages.ts has contradictory logic, and emits-reasoning-as-separate-message-enabled.e2e.test.ts needs update

_{Last reviewed commit: 6c5b0c2}

Two code paths injected reasoning/thinking text into channel delivery: 1. Streaming path (handlers.messages.ts): shouldEmitReasoning gated on onBlockReply being truthy, meaning reasoning was emitted specifically when a channel callback existed. Invert the condition so reasoning is suppressed when a channel callback is present. 2. Final payload builder (payloads.ts): unconditionally pushed formatted reasoning into replyItems which feeds into channel delivery. Remove the push entirely — reasoning is agent-internal and should never be forwarded to channels. Fix openclaw#18667

greptile-apps

_{4 files reviewed, 2 comments}

_{Edit Code Review Agent Settings | Greptile}

greptile-apps · 2026-02-17T06:13:32Z

Additional Comments (2)

src/agents/pi-embedded-subscribe.handlers.messages.ts
logic bug: condition inverted but emission target unchanged

the condition now requires !onBlockReply (line 298) but maybeEmitReasoning() still calls onBlockReply?.(...) (line 308). when onBlockReply is undefined, the optional chaining does nothing.

this effectively disables reasoning emission entirely, which suppresses it from channels (the goal) but the logic is contradictory. consider either:

removing maybeEmitReasoning() calls entirely since it's now a no-op
or adding a comment explaining why the function does nothing by design

_{Note: If this suggestion doesn't match your team's coding style, reply to this and let me know. I'll remember it for next time!}

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: src/agents/pi-embedded-subscribe.handlers.messages.ts
Line: 295:309

Comment:
logic bug: condition inverted but emission target unchanged

the condition now requires `!onBlockReply` (line 298) but `maybeEmitReasoning()` still calls `onBlockReply?.(...)` (line 308). when `onBlockReply` is undefined, the optional chaining does nothing.

this effectively disables reasoning emission entirely, which suppresses it from channels (the goal) but the logic is contradictory. consider either:
- removing `maybeEmitReasoning()` calls entirely since it's now a no-op
- or adding a comment explaining why the function does nothing by design

<sub>Note: If this suggestion doesn't match your team's coding style, reply to this and let me know. I'll remember it for next time!</sub>

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

src/agents/pi-embedded-subscribe.subscribe-embedded-pi-session.emits-reasoning-as-separate-message-enabled.e2e.test.ts
test expects old behavior - will fail

this test expects reasoning to be emitted via onBlockReply when reasoningMode: "on" (lines 41-43), but the PR intentionally removes this behavior. the test needs to be updated to reflect the new behavior where reasoning is suppressed from onBlockReply, or removed if that behavior is no longer supported.

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: src/agents/pi-embedded-subscribe.subscribe-embedded-pi-session.emits-reasoning-as-separate-message-enabled.e2e.test.ts
Line: 28:44

Comment:
test expects old behavior - will fail

this test expects reasoning to be emitted via `onBlockReply` when `reasoningMode: "on"` (lines 41-43), but the PR intentionally removes this behavior. the test needs to be updated to reflect the new behavior where reasoning is suppressed from `onBlockReply`, or removed if that behavior is no longer supported.

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

…in test Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…tion - Correct function name: subscribeEmbeddedPiSession (no "To") - Remove unused vi import from vitest - Replace shallow typeof check with a real harness-based suppression test that asserts onToolResult is NOT called for memory_search and IS called for a regular tool (read) - Add isInternalToolResult guard to emitToolSummary and emitToolOutput in pi-embedded-subscribe.ts so that memory tool results are suppressed Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…uppressed reasoning behavior - Remove the dead `void onBlockReply?.({ text: formattedReasoning })` call from maybeEmitReasoning: shouldEmitReasoning is only true when !onBlockReply, so the optional-chained call could never fire. Add a comment explaining this. - Update the stale e2e test that expected reasoning to be emitted via onBlockReply (2 calls) when reasoningMode:"on". The new behavior suppresses reasoning from channel delivery entirely — assert 1 call (answer only). Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

BinHPdev · 2026-02-22T04:40:59Z

Status update — addressed greptile feedback, all 5 tests passing.

Changes since initial submission:

Removed the dead void onBlockReply?.({ text: formattedReasoning }) call inside maybeEmitReasoning() — it was unreachable because shouldEmitReasoning is only true when !onBlockReply. Added a comment explaining the invariant.
Updated the stale e2e test to assert the new suppression behavior: onBlockReply is called exactly once (final answer only), reasoning is not delivered to channel. Covers all 5 tag variants (<think>, <thinking>, <thought>, <antthinking>).

Tests verified passing locally.

BinHPdev · 2026-03-05T16:16:15Z

Closing — the reasoning block suppression logic has since landed in main (outbound.ts now filters REASONING_PREFIX payloads directly). This fix is no longer needed.

openclaw-barnacle bot added agents Agent runtime and tooling size: S labels Feb 17, 2026

greptile-apps bot reviewed Feb 17, 2026

View reviewed changes

BinHPdev and others added 2 commits February 17, 2026 14:15

chore(format): fix oxfmt formatting

91d9d64

fix(mattermost): register websocket listeners before emitting events …

3223935

…in test Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

openclaw-barnacle bot added the channel: mattermost Channel integration: mattermost label Feb 17, 2026

BinHPdev and others added 2 commits February 20, 2026 03:48

openclaw-barnacle bot added size: M and removed size: S labels Feb 19, 2026

rmarr mentioned this pull request Feb 24, 2026

[Bug]: iMessage + /reasoning on creates infinite agent feedback loop #25897

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BinHPdev closed this Mar 5, 2026

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fix(agents): suppress reasoning blocks from channel delivery#18935

fix(agents): suppress reasoning blocks from channel delivery#18935
BinHPdev wants to merge 5 commits intoopenclaw:mainfrom
BinHPdev:fix/reasoning-channel-leak-18667

BinHPdev commented Feb 17, 2026 •

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Summary

Root Cause

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Greptile Summary

Confidence Score: 2/5

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greptile-apps bot commented Feb 17, 2026

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BinHPdev commented Feb 22, 2026

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BinHPdev commented Feb 17, 2026 •

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