igidn/tool-failure-recovery

Tool Failure Recovery

SFT conversations for tool-use failure recovery: the assistant calls a tool, gets an error, and recovers, by fixing the call, switching tools, retrying, asking for input, or reporting that the task cannot be done.

Structure

One JSON object per line: {"messages": [...], "source": "harness-synthetic"}.

role	fields	notes
system	content	tool schemas as JSON after Available tools:
user	content	the task
assistant	content, tool_calls	reasoning in <think>...</think>; content is null on call-only turns
tool	content, tool_call_id, name	one result per call; a failure is an error object or error text

A real harness episode, including the recovery call that produces the final answer:

{"messages": [
  {"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant with access to tools. ... Available tools: [ ... ]"},
  {"role": "user", "content": "Hi, What do you know about Marie Curie? No rush."},
  {"role": "assistant", "content": "<think>I need find_person for this.</think>", "tool_calls": [{"id": "call_1", "type": "function", "function": {"name": "find_person", "arguments": "{\"name\": \"Marie Curie\"}"}}]},
  {"role": "tool", "content": "{\"error\": \"unknown tool find_person. Available tools: get_weather, lookup_person, calculate\"}", "tool_call_id": "call_1", "name": "find_person"},
  {"role": "assistant", "content": "<think>Let me redo that with a valid tool name.</think>", "tool_calls": [{"id": "call_2", "type": "function", "function": {"name": "lookup_person", "arguments": "{\"name\": \"Marie Curie\"}"}}]},
  {"role": "tool", "content": "{\"born\": 1867, \"height_cm\": 155, \"field\": \"physics/chemistry\"}", "tool_call_id": "call_2", "name": "lookup_person"},
  {"role": "assistant", "content": "Marie Curie's height was 155 cm."}
], "source": "harness-synthetic"}