OpenHands / OpenHands/software-agent-sdk

Make shell more permissive to reduce "combined heredoc" rejections

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#4,957 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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agent-execution enhancement tools
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Problem

Agents frequently hit this message when trying to write files/scripts via heredocs:

The shell rejected my combined heredoc; I'll apply the model edit directly.

This was observed on gpt-5.6, but has been reported to happen across other models as well.

Proposed change

Investigate making the SDK shell more permissive so that combined/valid heredoc commands are accepted instead of rejected, reducing unnecessary fallback to direct model edits.

Context

Raised in a Slack thread where multiple users reported seeing this repeatedly.

Contributor guide

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

The issue names no implementation files or tests. Search the repository for the “combined heredoc” rejection message and the shell command validation entry point, then reproduce a valid combined heredoc; done means valid heredoc commands are accepted and regression coverage demonstrates that unnecessary fallback rejection is avoided.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python, shell
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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