github / github/copilot-sdk

Feature request: per-tool `eager_input_streaming` so `assistant.tool_call_delta` fires early for Anthropic models

Open
#1,974 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
enhancement
Dominant language
Java
Stars
10.5k
Forks
1.5k
Avg merge
1d 11h
Merged PRs (30d)
128

Description

### What
The recently added `assistant.tool_call_delta` provides access to incremental tool call deltas. For recent OpenAI models (e.g. GPT 5.5), it works as expected to send deltas smoothly *as they are generated*. However, for Anthropic models (e.g. Claude Opus 4.8), the deltas arrive as a burst because Claude buffers them. Anthropic provided the `eager_input_streaming` flag for the expected behavior: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/fine-grained-tool-streaming#how-to-use-fine-grained-tool-streaming. But the SDK hasn't exposed this option yet.

#### Proposed Usage Example
```js
defineTool("my_tool", {
description,
parameters,
handler,
eagerInputStreaming: true, // or a different name
});
```

### Why

Responsiveness: for tools capable of handling partial arguments, this improves responsiveness when the whole response might take many seconds - sometimes minutes - to generate.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by tracing the assistant.tool_call_delta flow and the per-tool definition API used by the proposed defineTool example, then inspect where Anthropic model options are sent. Done means a per-tool eager input streaming option is exposed and causes tool-call deltas to arrive incrementally for Anthropic models without changing existing behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java, javascript
Domain
api, backend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
62/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.