Non-standard OpenAI-like response format on tool_calls

TL;DR

Issue togethercomputer/together-python#160 (closed, 3 comments): Together's streaming chat API returned null instead of omitting fields, breaking OpenAI-compatible parsers: delta.tool_calls is null on text-only chunks, function.arguments is null on the first tool-call fragment, and function.name is null on continuation fragments.

Steps

1. Contributor orangetin acknowledged and said the null-field behavior 'should be fixed this week' (Sep 2024). Note: this repo was later deprecated in favor of togethercomputer/together-py.

When to use

You are seeing this: Note: this repo was later deprecated in favor of togethercomputer/together-py. Use this skill when you run into "Non-standard OpenAI-like response format on tool_calls".

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

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

Edge cases

• Note: this repo was later deprecated in favor of togethercomputer/together-py.

Asked in gh:togethercomputer/together-python#160 (https://github.com/togethercomputer/together-python/issues/160): Non-standard OpenAI-like response format on toolcalls.. The issue report: Issue togethercomputer/together-python#160 (closed, 3 comments): Together's streaming chat API returned null instead of omitting fields, breaking OpenAI-compatible parsers: delta.toolcalls is null on text-only chunks, function.arguments is null on the first tool-call fragment, and function.name is null on continuation fragments. The verified answer: Contributor orangetin acknowledged and said the null-field behavior 'should be fixed this week' (Sep 2024). Note: this repo was later deprecated in favor of togethercomputer/together-py. Lesson: null-vs-missing field mismatches are the classic OpenAI-compat breakage on Together streaming; normalize null tool_calls fields defensively when parsing.