Bounded generic type parameter not narrowed past its upper bound, regardless of argument value
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Description
Bug Report
If a generic type variable _E has an upper bound B, the upper bound B seems to be used as the inferred type of _E when inferring other type variables that depend on _E, even if there is a more specific type that _E could be narrowed to.
This becomes an issue when trying to infer error types returned by poltergeist (a simple library that provides a generic Result = Ok[_T] | Err[_E] utility type).
To Reproduce
from poltergeist import catch
@catch(TypeError, ValueError)
def validate_positive_number(int_or_str: int | str) -> int:
if isinstance(int_or_str, str):
raise TypeError("Input must be an integer")
if int_or_str <= 0:
raise ValueError("Input must be positive")
return int_or_str
def do_something_with_positive_number(int_or_str: int | str) -> None:
validated_number_result = validate_positive_number(int_or_str)
reveal_type(validated_number_result) # Revealed type is "Union[poltergeist.result.Ok[builtins.int], poltergeist.result.Err[builtins.Exception]]" Mypy
The implementation of catch can be found here:
Source code for the `catch` decorator
import functools
from collections.abc import Awaitable
from typing import Callable, ParamSpec, TypeVar, reveal_type
from poltergeist.result import Err, Ok, Result
_T = TypeVar("_T")
_E = TypeVar("_E", bound=BaseException)
_P = ParamSpec("_P")
def catch(
*errors: type[_E],
) -> Callable[[Callable[_P, _T]], Callable[_P, Result[_T, _E]]]:
def decorator(func: Callable[_P, _T]) -> Callable[_P, Result[_T, _E]]:
@functools.wraps(func)
def wrapper(*args: _P.args, **kwargs: _P.kwargs) -> Result[_T, _E]:
try:
result = func(*args, **kwargs)
except errors as e:
return Err(e)
return Ok(result)
return wrapper
return decorator
def catch_async(
*errors: type[_E],
) -> Callable[[Callable[_P, Awaitable[_T]]], Callable[_P, Awaitable[Result[_T, _E]]]]:
def decorator(
func: Callable[_P, Awaitable[_T]]
) -> Callable[_P, Awaitable[Result[_T, _E]]]:
@functools.wraps(func)
async def wrapper(*args: _P.args, **kwargs: _P.kwargs) -> Result[_T, _E]:
try:
result = await func(*args, **kwargs)
except errors as e:
return Err(e)
return Ok(result)
return wrapper
return decorator
Expected Behavior
mypy should be able to accurately use the value of errors to narrow the inferred type of _E within catch, and thus infer that validated_number_result is of type Result[int, TypeError | ValueError].
Actual Behavior
Mypy keeps _E inferred to its upper bound BaseException, thus inferring validated_number_result as Result[int, BaseException].
By contrast, pylance's type checker is able to narrow validated_number_result as expected:
Your Environment
- Mypy version used: 1.15.0
- Mypy configuration options from
mypy.ini(and other config files):
mypy.ini
[mypy]
python_version = 3.13
mypy_path = typings
ignore_missing_imports = True
check_untyped_defs = True
disallow_untyped_defs = True
disallow_untyped_calls = True
strict_equality = True
disallow_any_unimported = True
warn_return_any = True
no_implicit_optional = True
pretty = True
show_error_context = True
show_error_codes = True
show_error_code_links = True
no_namespace_packages = True
- Python version used: 3.13.0
Unsure if related to #19081 , but it's possible, given that both these issues are related to retaining information via generic type parameters.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reproducing the example from the issue with the shown mypy.ini settings and inspect the generic inference behavior for the bounded _E TypeVar. The related implementation example is poltergeist/decorator.py; done means the reveal_type result preserves TypeError | ValueError instead of widening _E to BaseException.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- compilers
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 38/100