From ac84fe7ea11bffe0587d8b798d13748af7c7ca6d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: alt-glitch <balyan.sid@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2026 19:27:49 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] tui_gateway: surface tool failure as payload.error (result
 convention)

---
 tests/test_tui_gateway_server.py | 40 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 tui_gateway/server.py            | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 69 insertions(+)

diff --git a/tests/test_tui_gateway_server.py b/tests/test_tui_gateway_server.py
index f0fa3f5bf94..dd93fda30e4 100644
--- a/tests/test_tui_gateway_server.py
+++ b/tests/test_tui_gateway_server.py
@@ -6118,3 +6118,43 @@ def test_sniff_image_ext_magic_and_filename():
     assert server._sniff_image_ext(b"unknown") == ".png"  # fallback
     # filename hint wins over magic bytes
     assert server._sniff_image_ext(b"\x89PNG", "photo.jpeg") == ".jpeg"
+
+
+def test_tool_complete_derives_error_from_result_convention(monkeypatch):
+    # The repo convention (agent.display._result_succeeded): a JSON-object
+    # result with a truthy string "error" — or success:false — IS a failure.
+    # The gateway surfaces it as payload["error"] so clients (OpenTUI ✗ state,
+    # Ink trail ✗) don't sniff the convention themselves.
+    events: list[tuple[str, str, dict]] = []
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        server, "_emit", lambda event_type, sid, payload: events.append((event_type, sid, payload))
+    )
+    monkeypatch.setitem(
+        server._sessions,
+        "err-test",
+        {"tool_progress_mode": "verbose", "tool_started_at": {}, "edit_snapshots": {}},
+    )
+
+    # 1) error-string result → flattened, capped error on the payload
+    server._on_tool_complete(
+        "err-test", "t1", "read_file", {"path": "/nope"},
+        json.dumps({"error": "File not found:\n   /nope"}),
+    )
+    assert events[-1][2]["error"] == "File not found: /nope"
+
+    # 2) success:false without error string → generic failure marker
+    server._on_tool_complete(
+        "err-test", "t2", "patch", {"path": "x"}, json.dumps({"success": False})
+    )
+    assert events[-1][2]["error"] == "tool reported failure"
+
+    # 3) plain-text result → NEVER a failure
+    server._on_tool_complete("err-test", "t3", "terminal", {"command": "ls"}, "file-a\nfile-b")
+    assert "error" not in events[-1][2]
+
+    # 4) JSON result with error: null / no error key → success
+    server._on_tool_complete(
+        "err-test", "t4", "web_search", {"q": "x"},
+        json.dumps({"results": [1, 2], "error": None}),
+    )
+    assert "error" not in events[-1][2]
diff --git a/tui_gateway/server.py b/tui_gateway/server.py
index 3f2b806fb17..19fe603b721 100644
--- a/tui_gateway/server.py
+++ b/tui_gateway/server.py
@@ -2100,8 +2100,37 @@ def _on_tool_start(sid: str, tool_call_id: str, name: str, args: dict):
         _emit("tool.start", sid, payload)
 
 
+def _tool_error_from_result(result: str) -> str | None:
+    """Derive a tool-failure message from the repo's result convention.
+
+    Canon (same as ``agent.display._result_succeeded``): a JSON-object result
+    with a truthy string ``error`` key — or an explicit ``success: false`` —
+    means the tool failed.  Returned flattened + capped for a one-line header.
+    Conservative on purpose: non-JSON / non-dict results are NEVER failures
+    (plain-text output is normal success output).
+    """
+    try:
+        data = json.loads(result)
+    except Exception:
+        return None
+    if not isinstance(data, dict):
+        return None
+    err = data.get("error")
+    if isinstance(err, str) and err.strip():
+        return " ".join(err.split())[:300]
+    if data.get("success") is False:
+        return "tool reported failure"
+    return None
+
+
 def _on_tool_complete(sid: str, tool_call_id: str, name: str, args: dict, result: str):
     payload = {"tool_id": tool_call_id, "name": name, "args": args}
+    # Failure surfaced explicitly so clients don't have to sniff the result
+    # convention themselves (the TUI's ✗ state and Ink's trail ✗ both key off
+    # payload["error"], which was previously never set on this path).
+    _tool_err = _tool_error_from_result(result)
+    if _tool_err:
+        payload["error"] = _tool_err
     session = _sessions.get(sid)
     snapshot = None
     started_at = None