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Python: Implement message filtering in agent workflow to stop emitting already seen responses#4268

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Python: Implement message filtering in agent workflow to stop emitting already seen responses#4268
leelakarthik wants to merge 2 commits intomicrosoft:mainfrom
leelakarthik:patch-6

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@leelakarthik leelakarthik commented Feb 25, 2026

Summary

Fixes #4261

When a GroupChat orchestrator terminates, it yields self._full_conversation
(the entire conversation history) via ctx.yield_output(). Without filtering,
WorkflowAgent converts all messages — including user inputs and earlier assistant
responses — into output, causing them to compound across successive turns.

Root Cause

The termination path in BaseGroupChatOrchestrator calls
ctx.yield_output(self._full_conversation) which is a list[Message]. This hits
the list[Message] branch in both _convert_workflow_event_to_agent_response_updates
(streaming) and _convert_workflow_events_to_agent_response (non-streaming), where
all messages were forwarded without filtering.

Fix

Added _filter_messages() that returns only the last meaningful assistant message
from list[Message] output. This is intentionally aggressive because:

  1. User messages — re-emitting these as assistant output is the reported bug
  2. Earlier assistant messages — already surfaced in real-time via streaming;
    including them again causes duplication
  3. Default behavior alignmentGroupChatBuilder defaults to
    intermediate_outputs=False. Users who need intermediate responses can opt in
    via intermediate_outputs=True

Relationship to #4275

PR #4275 filters the AgentResponse branch. This PR filters the list[Message]
branch — the actual code path hit by GroupChat's termination yield. Both fixes are
complementary.

Tests

  • Updated test_workflow_as_agent_yield_output_with_list_of_chat_messages to
    reflect new filtering semantics
  • Added TestWorkflowAgentUserInputFilteringRegression with multi-turn compounding
    regression tests for streaming and non-streaming paths

Contribution Checklist

  • The code builds clean without any errors or warnings
  • The PR follows the Contribution Guidelines
  • All unit tests pass, and I have added new tests where possible
  • Is this a breaking change? If yes, add "[BREAKING]" prefix to the title of the PR.

@github-actions github-actions bot changed the title Implement message filtering in agent workflow to stop emitting already seen responses Python: Implement message filtering in agent workflow to stop emitting already seen responses Feb 25, 2026
…ng messages in response

Add a method to filter messages and update message handling.

This helps remove the user messages being duplicated/emitted in the response

This fixes the microsoft#4261 for both streaming and non streaming functions
…ge] filtering expectations (microsoft#4261)

- Update test_workflow_as_agent_yield_output_with_list_of_chat_messages to
  reflect _filter_messages semantics: only the last meaningful assistant
  message is surfaced from list[Message] output, preventing user input
  re-emission and full conversation history replay.

- Add TestWorkflowAgentUserInputFilteringRegression with multi-turn
  compounding regression tests for both streaming and non-streaming paths,
  reproducing the exact escalating symptom from microsoft#4261.

Users who need intermediate agent responses can opt in via
intermediate_outputs=True in GroupChatBuilder.
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@leelakarthik
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Updated: Added tests and clarified filtering rationale

What this fixes

Issue #4261: When a GroupChat orchestrator terminates, it yields
self._full_conversation (the entire conversation history) via
ctx.yield_output(). Without filtering, WorkflowAgent converts all
messages — including user inputs and earlier assistant responses — into
output, causing them to compound across successive turns.

Root cause analysis

The termination path in BaseGroupChatOrchestrator:

# _check_terminate_and_yield / _check_agent_terminate_and_yield
await ctx.yield_output(self._full_conversation)  # list[Message]

This hits the list[Message] branch in both
_convert_workflow_event_to_agent_response_updates (streaming) and
_convert_workflow_events_to_agent_response (non-streaming), where all
messages were forwarded without filtering.

Fix: _filter_messages

Returns only the last meaningful assistant message from list[Message]
output. This is intentionally more aggressive than just filtering
role="user" because:

  1. User messages — re-emitting these as assistant output is the
    reported bug
  2. Earlier assistant messages — these are conversation history replay
    from _full_conversation. They were already surfaced in real-time
    during workflow execution via AgentResponseUpdate streaming. Including
    them again in the termination output causes duplication.
  3. Default behavior alignmentGroupChatBuilder defaults to
    intermediate_outputs=False, meaning only the orchestrator's output
    is surfaced. Users who need intermediate agent responses can opt in
    via intermediate_outputs=True.

Relationship to #4275

PR #4275 filters the AgentResponse branch. This PR filters the
list[Message] branch, which is the actual code path hit by GroupChat's
termination yield (ctx.yield_output(self._full_conversation)). Both
fixes are complementary — they cover different branches of the same
conversion logic.

Tests added

  • Updated test_workflow_as_agent_yield_output_with_list_of_chat_messages
    to reflect the new filtering semantics (last assistant message only)

  • Added TestWorkflowAgentUserInputFilteringRegression with two
    multi-turn compounding regression tests:

    • test_streaming_compounding_not_observed_across_turns
    • test_nonstreaming_compounding_not_observed_across_turns

    These reproduce the exact escalating symptom from the issue report
    where turn 1's "hi" bled into turn 2's response.

@leelakarthik
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@copilot review

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Python: [Bug]: _convert_workflow_event_to_agent_response_updates emits user input again

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