cli-67: retry on empty addition

szmania · Sep 26, 2026 · Sep 26, 2026 · Sep 26, 2026 · Sep 26, 2026 · Sep 26, 2026
commit 25505e914e26185a4394ae378486aecd1469db6d
diff --git a/cecli/coders/base_coder.py b/cecli/coders/base_coder.py
@@ -3988,7 +3988,7 @@ async def show_send_output(self, completion):
         if (
             not len(self.partial_response_content)
             and not len(self.partial_response_tool_calls)
-            and not len(self.partial_response_reasoning_content)
+            and not _is_meaningful_reasoning(self.partial_response_reasoning_content)
         ):
             self.empty_response = True
             return
@@ -4118,7 +4118,8 @@ async def show_send_output_stream(self, completion):
 
                             text += reasoning_content
                             self.got_reasoning_content = True
-                            received_content = True
+                            if _is_meaningful_reasoning(reasoning_content):
+                                received_content = True
 
                         self.token_profiler.on_token()
                         self.io.update_spinner_suffix(reasoning_content)
@@ -4194,7 +4195,14 @@ async def show_send_output_stream(self, completion):
             self.io.tool_warning("Execution stopped by on message hook")
             return
 
-        if not received_content and len(self.partial_response_tool_calls) == 0:
+        # Treat the response as empty when nothing was received, or when the
+        # only thing received was reasoning made entirely of non-alphanumeric
+        # characters (e.g. moonshotai/kimi-k3 returning "!!!!").
+        if (
+            not received_content
+            and len(self.partial_response_tool_calls) == 0
+            and not _is_meaningful_reasoning(self.partial_response_reasoning_content)
+        ):
             self.empty_response = True
             return
 
@@ -5383,3 +5391,15 @@ def _first_usage_tokens(usage: object, paths: list[str], default: int = 0) -> in
         if value is not None:
             return value
     return default
+
+
+def _is_meaningful_reasoning(text):
+    """Return True if reasoning text contains at least one alphanumeric character.
+
+    Some providers (e.g. moonshotai/kimi-k3) occasionally return completions
+    with empty ``content`` and a ``reasoning_content`` made entirely of
+    punctuation (e.g. ``"!!!!"``). Those responses are effectively empty, so
+    the empty-response detector only lets reasoning count as response
+    content when it holds at least one alphanumeric character.
+    """
+    return bool(text) and any(ch.isalnum() for ch in text)
diff --git a/cecli/website/docs/config/retries.md b/cecli/website/docs/config/retries.md
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ Cecli can be configured to retry failed API calls. This is useful for handling i
 - `retry-timeout`: The timeout in seconds for each retry.
 - `retry-backoff-factor`: The backoff factor to use between retries.
 - `retry-on-unavailable`: Whether to retry on 503 Service Unavailable errors.
+- `retry-on-empty`: Whether to retry when the model returns an empty response. A response is considered empty when it has no content, no tool calls, and no *meaningful* reasoning. Reasoning that contains no alphanumeric characters (for example a `reasoning_content` of `"!!!!"`) does not count as a response, so it is retried like any other empty response.
 
 Example usage in `.cecli.conf.yml`:
 

diff --git a/tests/basic/test_retry_config.py b/tests/basic/test_retry_config.py
@@ -3,12 +3,12 @@
 import pytest
 
 from cecli.llm import litellm
-from cecli.models import Model, _parse_retry_config
+from cecli.models import Model, parse_retry_config
 
 
 def test_parse_retry_config_string():
     config_str = '{"retry_timeout": 15, "retry-on-empty": true}'
-    result = _parse_retry_config(config_str)
+    result = parse_retry_config(config_str)
     assert result["retry_timeout"] == 15.0
     assert result["retry_on_empty"] is True
     # defaults
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ def test_parse_retry_config_dict():
         "retry_backoff_factor": 2.0,
         "retry-on-unavailable": False,
     }
-    result = _parse_retry_config(config_dict)
+    result = parse_retry_config(config_dict)
     assert result["retry_timeout"] == 10.0
     assert result["retry_backoff_factor"] == 2.0
     assert result["retry_on_unavailable"] is False