DSPY 2.5 + Avatar agent: max_iters ignored

[tikoehle]

In the avatar example notebook there is a comment about max_iters "is used to control the number of iterations in multi step execution". With my agent instance (max_iters=10)

self.avatar = Avatar(
            tools=self.tools,
            signature=TestSignature,
            verbose=verbose,
            max_iters=10,
        )

the process was terminated at action_73 with querying on a new tool_name (not exist in my list of Tools!), which consequently resulted in a validation error because tool_output was None. Creating the FINISH action somehow adaptive to the problem resolution could be an interesting feature because I observed my result_72 was very detailed and perfectly solved the problem.

Action 73: VERIFICATION_TOOL (...)
1 validation error for ActionOutput
tool_output
  Input should be a valid string [type=string_type, input_value=None, input_type=NoneType]
    For further information visit https://errors.pydantic.dev/2.9/v/string_type

In dspy/predict/avatar/avatar.py debugging shows the max_iters is None and the while loop never terminates.

        max_iters = None if "max_iters" not in kwargs else kwargs["max_iters"]
        while tool_name != "Finish" and (max_iters > 0 if max_iters else True):

This simple fix solved the max_iters problem:

        # max_iters = None if "max_iters" not in kwargs else kwargs["max_iters"]                                                                                            
        max_iters = self.max_iters

[okhat]

@krypticmouse

[tikoehle]

Attaching a diff for avatar.py which solved the following problems for me. Feel free to use or object.

• max_iters as reported above,
• With a high number of max_iters, if the LM invents a tool_name (VERIFICATION_TOOL example above), then make the action a Finish action,
• Finish action name can get uppercase 'Finish' vs. 'FINISH', causing string compare to fail.
  Action 6: Finish (All actions ... )
  Action 5: FINISH (Conclude the ... )
• Fix tool_output is None
  avatar.txt