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fix: guard against null output in parse_response and output_text property #3404

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fix: guard against null output in parse_response and output_text property #3404

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4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions src/openai/types/responses/response.py
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -551,10 +551,10 @@ def output_text(self) -> str:
If no `output_text` content blocks exist, then an empty string is returned.
"""
texts: List[str] = []
for output in self.output:
for output in self.output or []:

@chatgpt-codex-connector chatgpt-codex-connector Bot Aug 2, 2026

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P2 Badge Handle null output before strict validation

When a client opts into _strict_response_validation=True, a /responses payload with output: null is rejected in _base_client.py via validate_type() before this output_text guard can ever run, because the model still declares output as a non-optional List[ResponseOutputItem]. That means the null-output backend case this change is trying to tolerate still crashes for strict clients; normalize the payload before validation or make the response field accept None as well.

Useful? React with 👍 / 👎.

@adhavan18 adhavan18 Aug 2, 2026

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Confirmed, and I do not think it can be fixed from this PR.

output is declared non-optional here:

output: List[ResponseOutputItem]

and this file opens with:

# File generated from our OpenAPI spec by Stainless. See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

So making the field accept None means changing the OpenAPI spec, which is not something a contributor can do in this repository. The same applies to the sibling comment about ResponseOutputText.text.

That leaves this PR fixing the non-strict path, which is the default, while _strict_response_validation=True still raises earlier in validate_type(). That is a genuine remaining gap and I would rather it be stated in the PR than discovered later, so I have noted it in the description.

Worth flagging to a maintainer: this PR does edit the generated response.py to guard the output_text property. If that file is regenerated without the change being carried in the Stainless config, the guard will be dropped. If that is a concern, the property guard could move to a non-generated module instead, and I am happy to restructure it that way.

@adhavan18 adhavan18 Aug 2, 2026

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Correcting one thing I said here: I claimed the guard could be dropped on regeneration. That is wrong. CONTRIBUTING states that manual modifications are persisted between generations, so the only cost is a possible merge conflict with generator changes, not a silent revert.

The substantive point stands unchanged: Response.output is generated as non-optional, so a strict client still fails in validate_type() before reaching this guard, and closing that gap needs an OpenAPI spec change rather than an edit here.

if output.type == "message":
for content in output.content:
if content.type == "output_text":
if content.type == "output_text" and content.text is not None: # pyright: ignore[reportUnnecessaryComparison]
texts.append(content.text)

return "".join(texts)
53 changes: 53 additions & 0 deletions tests/lib/responses/test_null_output.py
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Expand Up @@ -8,6 +8,7 @@

from openai import OpenAI, AsyncOpenAI
from openai.types.responses import ToolParam
from openai.types.responses.response import Response


class Answer(BaseModel):
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -123,3 +124,55 @@ async def test_stream_recovers_finalized_output(sync: bool, terminal_output: str
assert tool.type == "function_call" and tool.status == "completed"
assert tool.id == "fc_test"
assert tool.parsed_arguments == {"answer": 4}


def _make_response(**overrides: object) -> Response:
base: dict[str, object] = dict(
id="resp_test",
created_at=0,
model="gpt-5.2",
object="response",
parallel_tool_calls=False,
tool_choice="auto",
tools=[],
)
base.update(overrides)
return Response.model_construct(**base)


def test_output_text_with_null_output() -> None:
"""output_text must not crash when output is None, matching parse_response's own guard."""
response = _make_response(output=None)
assert response.output_text == ""


def test_output_text_with_missing_output_text() -> None:
"""A message content block whose type is output_text but whose text is None (a
partial/aborted item) must be skipped rather than appended as None."""
response = _make_response(
output=[
{
"id": "msg_test",
"type": "message",
"role": "assistant",
"status": "in_progress",
"content": [{"type": "output_text", "text": None, "annotations": []}],
}
]
)
assert response.output_text == ""


def test_output_text_with_present_output() -> None:
response = _make_response(
output=[
{
"id": "msg_test",
"type": "message",
"role": "assistant",
"status": "completed",
"content": [{"type": "output_text", "text": "hello", "annotations": []}],
}
]
)
assert response.output_text == "hello"