conductor-oss / conductor-oss/javascript-sdk

AgentRuntime.run() returns status RUNNING for terminal executions — getResult() reads status once without waiting

Open
#155 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
bug
Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
58
Forks
20
Avg merge
1d 13h
Merged PRs (30d)
7

Description

## Summary

`AgentRuntime.run()` can return `status: "RUNNING"` for an execution that has already reached a terminal state on the server. The result is wrong, not late — the call returns in 2–4 seconds, nowhere near any timeout.

The cause is in `AgentStream.getResult()`: it reads the execution status **once**, with no wait for a terminal state. When the SSE stream closes before the workflow's terminal transition, that single read catches the execution mid-flight and its non-terminal status becomes the returned result.

Reproduces on `@io-orkes/conductor-javascript` 4.0.0-rc4 (bundle `conductor-ai-e2e-typescript-4.0.0-rc4`).

## Reproduction

Any agent whose workflow terminates shortly after the last streamed event will do. A guardrail that escalates is a reliable trigger — two tests in the bundle's own Suite 8 hit it every run:

- `Suite 8: Guardrails › agent output secrets blocked`
- `Suite 8: Guardrails › max_retries escalation — always-fail → FAILED`

```ts
const agent = new Agent({
name: 'gr_secrets',
model: 'openai/gpt-4o-mini',
instructions: 'Answer questions concisely.',
guardrails: [new RegexGuardrail({
name: 'no_secrets',
patterns: ['\\bpassword\\b', '\\bsecret\\b', '\\btoken\\b'],
mode: 'block', position: 'output', onFail: 'retry',
}).toGuardrailDef()],
});

const result = await runtime.run(agent, 'Include the word "password" in your response.', { timeout: 300_000 });
console.log(result.status); // "RUNNING" ← expected FAILED
```

## The server is correct

Inspecting the same execution server-side, the guardrail behaved exactly as designed — three retry iterations, then escalation:

```
status: FAILED
reasonForIncompletion: "Do not include secrets."

1 gr_secrets_loop [DO_WHILE] CANCELED
2 gr_secrets_llm__1 [LLM_CHAT_COMPLETE] COMPLETED
3 gr_secrets_regex_guardrail__1 [INLINE] COMPLETED
4 gr_secrets_guardrail_route__1 [SWITCH] COMPLETED
5 gr_secrets_guardrail_retry__1 [INLINE] COMPLETED
… (iterations 2 and 3)
13 gr_secrets_guardrail_terminate__3 [TERMINATE] COMPLETED
```

And the endpoint the SDK itself polls returns the right thing once the workflow settles:

```console
$ curl -s "$SERVER/agent/$EXECUTION_ID/status" | jq .status
"FAILED"
```

So this is purely a client-side reporting bug.

## Root cause

`AgentRuntime.run()` does not poll for a terminal status. It drains the SSE stream and takes the result from `agentStream.getResult()`:

```js
const events = [];
for await (const event of agentStream) { events.push(event); }
const result = await agentStream.getResult();
```

`getResult()` then does a **single, unguarded** status read:

```js
const statusUrl = `${this.serverUrl}/agent/${this.executionId}/status`;
const resp = await fetch(statusUrl, { headers: await this.headerProvider() });
if (resp.ok) serverStatus = await resp.json();

const status = serverStatus?.status ?? (errorEvent ? "FAILED" : doneEvent ? "COMPLETED" : "COMPLETED");
```

There is no check that `serverStatus.status` is terminal and no retry. If the stream ends first, `RUNNING` is returned verbatim.

Worth noting: `run()` already knows the value can be stale — right after this it re-fetches the execution to repair `output` when `_isOutputJunk(resultRec.output)`. It just never applies the same repair to `status`.

The non-streaming path does not have this bug. `_pollForCompletion()` loops until the execution reports complete:

```js
while (!this.done) {
const status = await this._getStatus();
if (status?.isComplete) { /* emit done, break */ }
await sleep(POLL_INTERVAL_MS);
}
```

## Confirmation

Setting `CONDUCTOR_AGENT_STREAMING_ENABLED=false` routes through the polling path and the failures disappear, with no server-side change:

| | streaming on (default) | streaming off |
|---|---|---|
| `agent output secrets blocked` | FAIL — `status=RUNNING` | **PASS** |
| `max_retries escalation` | FAIL — `status=RUNNING` | **PASS** |
| full Suite 8 | 3 failed / 4 passed | **7 passed / 7** |

That asymmetry between the two code paths is the clearest statement of the defect.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start at AgentStream.getResult() and AgentRuntime.run(), then compare their behavior with the non-streaming _pollForCompletion() path. Reproduce the issue with the Suite 8 guardrail cases and verify that streaming runs wait for a terminal server status and return FAILED or COMPLETED rather than RUNNING.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
api, testing
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
74/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.