Surfaced by local E2E behavior-parity testing of PR vs origin/main: the
plugin-migrated dispatchers were quietly changing the error envelope
shape returned to function-calling models on unconfigured systems.
Two findings, both from per-result error wrapping bleeding into the
pre-flight configuration error path:
1. **search**: ``firecrawl.search()`` caught the
``ValueError("Web tools are not configured...")`` from
``_get_firecrawl_client()`` and returned it as
``{"success": False, "error": ...}``, losing the legacy
``{"error": "Error searching web: ..."}`` envelope that
``tool_error()`` emits on main. Models that special-case the
``error`` key still detect the failure, but the prefix is part of
the legacy contract some users rely on.
2. **crawl**: ``firecrawl.crawl()`` caught the same pre-flight
``ValueError`` and wrapped it as a per-page error inside
``results[0]``. Main short-circuits on ``check_firecrawl_api_key()``
BEFORE dispatching, so its unconfigured response is
``{"success": False, "error": "web_crawl requires Firecrawl..."}``
at the top level. The PR's per-page burying hid the failure inside
``results[]`` where models that check ``result.get("error")`` would
miss it.
Fix:
- ``plugins/web/firecrawl/provider.py``: pull
``_get_firecrawl_client()`` outside the broad ``try`` in
``search()``. Pre-flight ``ValueError`` / ``ImportError`` propagate
to the dispatcher's top-level exception handler. In-flight SDK
errors still get wrapped as ``{"success": False, ...}``.
- ``tools/web_tools.py``: mirror main's upstream availability gate in
``web_crawl_tool``. When the resolved crawl provider is
``is_available()==False``, short-circuit BEFORE dispatching with the
same top-level error shape main emits.
- ``tests/tools/test_web_providers.py``: 2 regression tests
(``TestUnconfiguredErrorEnvelopeParity``) lock in the behavior so
future plugin work can't undo this.
Verified via local subprocess-based parity test (14/14 scenarios match
origin/main shape exactly) and full 210/210 web test suite green.
Removes the legacy in-tree provider scaffolding that PR #25182 fully
replaced with the plugin architecture:
tools/web_providers/__init__.py (6 lines)
tools/web_providers/base.py (89 lines — old ABCs)
tools/web_providers/ARCHITECTURE.md (73 lines — old design doc)
These were the staging-ground ABCs and provider modules that the
plugin migration absorbed. All seven web providers now implement the
single :class:`agent.web_search_provider.WebSearchProvider` ABC and
live under ``plugins/web/<vendor>/``. Nothing else in the tree imports
``tools.web_providers`` — verified via grep before deletion.
Test migration (tests/tools/test_web_providers.py)
--------------------------------------------------
Rewrote ``TestWebProviderABCs`` to test the new unified ABC at
:mod:`agent.web_search_provider`:
- test_cannot_instantiate_abc_directly — abstract ``name`` + ``is_available``
- test_concrete_search_only_provider_works — exercise default
``supports_extract=False`` / ``supports_crawl=False`` flags
- test_concrete_multi_capability_provider_works — exercise all three
capabilities, async extract supported (declared sync here for
simplicity; real plugins like parallel + firecrawl use async)
- test_search_only_provider_skips_extract_and_crawl — verify
``supports_*()`` flags default to False so search-only providers
don't have to implement extract() or crawl()
The 9 other tests in the file (per-capability backend selection,
DEFAULT_CONFIG merge, dispatcher routing) test public helpers in
``tools.web_tools`` that still exist and pass unchanged.
agent/web_search_provider.py docstring updated to reflect that the
legacy ABCs no longer exist; the response-shape contract is preserved
bit-for-bit so external consumers see no behavioral change.
Net diff
--------
- tools/web_providers/ removed (-168 lines)
- tests/tools/test_web_providers.py rewritten ABC section (+78/-30 net,
same coverage, new API)
- agent/web_search_provider.py docstring (-3/+5 lines)
Verified
--------
- 173/173 targeted web tests pass
- 12/12 ABC contract tests pass with the new interface
- No remaining grep hits for ``tools.web_providers`` outside of
intentional historical references in plugin docstrings.
Introduce the foundation for independently selecting web search and
extract backends — enabling future combinations like SearXNG for
search + Firecrawl for extract.
Architecture:
- tools/web_providers/base.py: WebSearchProvider and WebExtractProvider
ABCs with normalized result contracts (mirrors CloudBrowserProvider)
- tools/web_tools.py: _get_search_backend() and _get_extract_backend()
read per-capability config keys, fall through to shared web.backend
- hermes_cli/config.py: web.search_backend and web.extract_backend in
DEFAULT_CONFIG (empty = inherit from web.backend)
Behavioral change:
- web_search_tool() now dispatches via _get_search_backend()
- web_extract_tool() now dispatches via _get_extract_backend()
- When per-capability keys are empty (default), behavior is identical
to before — _get_search_backend() falls through to _get_backend()
This is purely structural — no new backends are added. SearXNG and
other search-only/extract-only providers can now be added as simple
drop-in modules in follow-up PRs.
12 new tests, 49 existing tests pass with zero regressions.
Ref: #19198
