Groq API incompatible with smolagents system messages via LiteLLMModel

TL;DR

1. [Symbolk (commenter)]: Update smolagents to 1.9.2 or newer: the Groq incompatibility with system messages through LiteLLMModel was a version bug, not a config problem.

Steps

1. [Symbolk (commenter)]: Update smolagents to 1.9.2 or newer: the Groq incompatibility with system messages through LiteLLMModel was a version bug, not a config problem. If you are on an older smolagents and hitting system-message errors against Groq's OpenAI-compatible endpoint, run pip install -U smolagents first before touching your model setup.

When to use

You are seeing this: Running a simple task fails due to system message issues. Use this skill when you run into "Groq API incompatible with smolagents system messages via LiteLLMModel".

When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

Versions

Versions mentioned in the source: 1.9.2. If you are on something much newer or older, the details may have shifted.

Why this happens

Running a simple task fails due to system message issues.

In the GitHub issue gh:huggingface/smolagents#429 (https://github.com/huggingface/smolagents/issues/429), the problem reported was: Issue huggingface/smolagents#429 (closed, 10 comments): Groq API incompatible with smolagents system messages when using OpenAI endpoint via LiteLLMModel. Code: from smolagents import CodeAgent, LiteLLMModel. model = LiteLLMModel("openai/deepseek-r1-distill-llama-70b", apibase="https://api.groq.com/openai/v1", apikey value [redacted]). agent = CodeAgent(tools=[], model=model, addbasetools=False, verbosity_level=2). Running a simple task fails due to system message issues. The verified resolution was: [Symbolk (commenter)]: Update smolagents to 1.9.2 or newer: the Groq incompatibility with system messages through LiteLLMModel was a version bug, not a config problem. If you are on an older smolagents and hitting system-message errors against Groq's OpenAI-compatible endpoint, run pip install -U smolagents first before touching your model setup.