docs(idl): three documented config fields are not honored

[ayaangazali]

Description

SdkInitPhase1Request documents two caller overrides in precise, confident terms:

// Caller override for NetworkDefaults.request_timeout_ms. Unset = the pool
// default (60000). openai-python / anthropic-python `timeout`.
optional int32     request_timeout_ms = 7 [(runanywhere.v1.rac_min) = 1000];

// Caller override for NetworkDefaults.max_retries. Unset = the pool
// default (3). openai-python / anthropic-python `max_retries`; 0 disables
// retries.
optional int32     max_retries        = 8 [...];

Neither field is wired to anything. They have no producer and no consumer:

• Nothing sets them. No binding writes either field. Searched bindings/{swift/Sources,kotlin/src/main,flutter/packages/*/lib,react-native/packages/*/src,electron/src,python/runanywhere}, excluding generated trees.
• Nothing reads them. core/src/lifecycle/sdk_init.cpp:523 parses SdkInitPhase1Request and never consults either field; grep for request_timeout_ms|max_retries across core/src returns nothing outside generated code.
• The transports use the compile-time pool value instead. Swift's URLSessionHttpTransport.swift:47 uses RADefaults.Network.requestTimeoutMs, and Web's download-poll retry loop (SDKCore.ts:965) uses networkDefaults.maxRetries imported from @runanywhere/proto-ts/defaults/pool.

So a caller who sets max_retries = 0 expecting "0 disables retries" gets the pool default of 3 instead, silently. That is the sort of claim worth either implementing or retracting, and retracting is the smaller, safer change.

This PR only corrects the comments. It does not add plumbing, because honouring these would mean threading two values from the init proto through the C ABI into every transport, which is a feature decision rather than a doc fix, and not mine to make unasked.

The wording follows a precedent already in the tree. sdk_defaults.proto says of the same knob:

// Retry attempts for a failed request. Only Web had a retry policy
// pre-pool; declaring it here does not switch it on elsewhere.

That is exactly the honest register these two fields were missing.

Type of Change

• Bug fix
• New feature
• Documentation update
• Refactoring

Testing

• Lint passes locally
• Added/updated tests for changes

No test: comment-only change to a .proto, with no behaviour to assert.

On idl/SCHEMA_LOCK, since a comment-only proto edit is not obviously a codegen event. IDL_SCHEMA_SHA256 is a hash over the contents of every idl/*.proto, so editing a comment does invalidate it, and idl-drift-check.yml would have failed without refreshing it:

$ idl/codegen/schema_lock.sh --check
::error::idl/SCHEMA_LOCK is stale — the .proto surface changed but codegen was not re-run.
  committed: 571199c4...
  actual:    6fe2a85a...

I refreshed it with idl/codegen/schema_lock.sh --update, the same helper generate_all.sh calls, rather than a full generate_all.sh, and want to be explicit about why that is sufficient here rather than have you assume I cut a corner:

• The generated bindings are gitignored, so SCHEMA_LOCK is the only tracked codegen artifact. A full run would produce no other tracked change.
• Proto comments do not reach generated code, so the generated output is byte-identical either way. Verified by grepping a distinctive phrase from these comments (0 disables) across core/src/generated, bindings/python/runanywhere/_proto, and the Swift/Kotlin/TS/Dart trees: present only in the .proto.
• The local protoc is 35.1, matching core/VERSIONS's PROTOC_VERSION=35.1 and the IDL_PROTOC_VERSION already in the lock, so that field is unchanged.

The resulting tracked diff is one line, the hash, and the check passes:

$ git diff --stat idl/SCHEMA_LOCK
 idl/SCHEMA_LOCK | 2 +-
$ idl/codegen/schema_lock.sh --check
✓ idl/SCHEMA_LOCK current: 1.2.0 / 6fe2a85a... (40 protos)

IDL_PROTO_COUNT stays 40; no proto was added or removed.

If you would rather the lock only ever move through a full generate_all.sh on a machine with the complete toolchain (protoc-gen-dart is missing here), say so and I will drop the lock hunk and let you regenerate.

Labels

SDKs:

• Commons - Changes to shared native code (core)

Checklist

• Code follows project style guidelines
• Self-review completed
• Documentation updated (if needed)

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation

  • Clarified that SDK initialization timeout and retry fields are not currently honored as caller-controlled overrides.
  • Documented that timeout behavior uses configured transport defaults, while retry behavior follows built-in network settings.
  • Clarified that voice agent generation and instruction fields are not currently honored; turns use the built-in system prompt.
  • Confirmed that public field declarations, types, and validation rules remain unchanged.

• Chores

  • Updated the interface definition language (IDL) version from 1.2.0 to 1.2.1.

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ℹ️ Recent review info

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Review profile: CHILL

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Run ID: cef8a68a-eb36-48bf-b1ad-70c05fa4818f

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between e921276 and 016b4da.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• idl/SCHEMA_LOCK
• idl/voice_agent_service.proto

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes (2)

• idl/voice_agent_service.proto
• idl/SCHEMA_LOCK

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---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The PR clarifies unsupported field behavior in SDK initialization and voice agent configuration comments. It updates the IDL version and schema hash from 1.2.0 to 1.2.1. No field declarations or runtime behavior changed.

Changes

IDL contract update

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Clarify field behavior idl/sdk_init.proto, idl/voice_agent_service.proto	Comments state which fields are not honored and identify the compile-time values used by the implementation.
Update IDL version metadata idl/VERSION, idl/SCHEMA_LOCK	The IDL version records now contain 1.2.1. The schema hash was updated, while the proto count and protoc version remain unchanged.

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~3 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 016b4

This updates documentation to accurately describe unsupported configuration fields and refreshes IDL metadata. No runtime behavior changes are described, and no current merge-blocking risk remains.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately identifies the documentation change and the unhonored configuration fields. It states three fields, while the changes cover four fields, so the count is slightly inaccurate but th…
Description check	✅ Passed	The description is detailed and follows the required sections. It identifies the documentation-only change, selects the correct change type, explains the testing decision, identifies the Commons label…
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 0…
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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[ayaangazali]

That failure was mine, and it is fixed in 0d3667b.

The gate is Require an idl/VERSION bump when the schema changed:

##[error]the .proto surface changed but idl/VERSION is still 1.2.0.

I had reasoned about SCHEMA_LOCK in the PR body but missed that the same digest also drives a second, separate rule. schema_lock.sh spells out the scale, and it covers this case explicitly:

# IDL_VERSION (idl/VERSION) is hand-maintained semver for the schema surface:
#   patch = comments/docs only · minor = additive · major = wire-breaking

So a comment-only change is a patch bump, not an exemption. idl/VERSION is now 1.2.1 and SCHEMA_LOCK carries it.

Ran the exact command CI runs, against main's copy of the lock as the base:

$ git show origin/main:idl/SCHEMA_LOCK > /tmp/base_lock
$ idl/codegen/schema_lock.sh --check --require-bump /tmp/base_lock
✓ idl/SCHEMA_LOCK current: 1.2.1 / 6fe2a85a... (40 protos)
exit=0

And confirmed the bump is what fixes it rather than assuming, by putting idl/VERSION back to 1.2.0 and re-running:

Bump idl/VERSION — patch for comments only, minor for additive
changes, major for anything wire-breaking — then re-run
./idl/codegen/generate_all.sh so SCHEMA_LOCK follows.

The digest itself is unchanged from the first push (6fe2a85a...), since the proto bytes did not move; only IDL_VERSION did. IDL_PROTO_COUNT is still 40, and nothing else in the tree pins 1.2.0.

The offer from the PR body still stands: if you would rather SCHEMA_LOCK only ever move through a full generate_all.sh on a machine with the complete toolchain, say so and I will drop both lock hunks and let you regenerate.

[ayaangazali]

Widened rather than opened as a second proto PR, for a concrete reason: any .proto edit moves IDL_SCHEMA_SHA256 and needs the idl/VERSION bump, so two open proto PRs would collide on SCHEMA_LOCK and VERSION and whichever landed second would need a rebase. One patch bump covers both.

The new one is VoiceAgentComposeConfig.instructions, and it is a stronger case than the two network overrides. Its documentation makes a definite functional claim:

System prompt for the agent. Governs persona AND spoken delivery ("talk quickly", "sound warm"), not just content. Same name and role as OpenAI Realtime session.instructions. Unset uses the commons voice default (short, spoken, no markdown).

This is the only system prompt the voice path reads: llm_generation.system_prompt is IGNORED here.

Nothing reads it. config_from_proto (voice_agent_internal_helpers.cpp:415) translates this message into rac_voice_agent_config_t and consumes 7 of its 11 fields; instructions is not among them, and grep for .instructions() across core/src returns nothing outside generated code.

What every turn actually gets is a compile-time constant:

// voice_agent_internal_helpers.cpp:76
rac_llm_options_t make_voice_llm_options() {
    rac_llm_options_t options = RAC_LLM_OPTIONS_DEFAULT;
    ...
    options.system_prompt = kVoiceAgentSystemPrompt;

So "unset uses the commons voice default" understates it: the default is what you get whether or not you set the field. The last line of that comment is the part worth correcting, because a reader takes it as "set instructions, not llm_generation.system_prompt", and the true statement is that the voice path reads neither.

llm_generation is inert for the same reason and is now noted too: make_voice_llm_options() takes no argument, so nothing on that message reaches the LLM.

I did not try to wire instructions up. It would need a slot on rac_voice_agent_llm_config_t, which has only model_path / model_id / model_name, so honoring it is a public C ABI change plus threading the value to three make_voice_llm_options() call sites across voice_agent.cpp, voice_agent_proto_abi.cpp and voice_agent_d7_abi.cpp. That is a feature decision and not one I should make unasked, and I cannot exercise the voice path here to prove such a change behaves.

turn_detection is also unread by config_from_proto, but unlike the other three I could not convince myself the message has no other consumer, so I left it alone rather than assert something I had not established.

Lock and version handling is unchanged from the original: IDL_VERSION stays 1.2.1, the digest moves to 0eed7068..., and CI's own check passes.

$ idl/codegen/schema_lock.sh --check --require-bump <main's SCHEMA_LOCK>
✓ idl/SCHEMA_LOCK current: 1.2.1 / 0eed7068... (40 protos)

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Actionable comments posted: 1

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Inline comments:
In `@idl/voice_agent_service.proto`:
- Around line 110-111: Update the comment near make_voice_llm_options() to call
the constructed values “voice LLM options” instead of “turn options,” preserving
the existing meaning and scope.

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⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Team

Run ID: 8d934de5-78c9-4d68-b640-1f51da48feb1

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 0d3667b and e921276.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

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[sanchitmonga22]

Replying to this comment

That makes sense -- thanks for flagging it! The schema_lock.sh --update approach you used is exactly right here since this is a comment-only change to the schema; no need to regenerate via the full generate_all.sh toolchain for this one. Keeping your SCHEMA_LOCK diff as-is.

Reviewed with help from Claude Code and Codex.

[sanchitmonga22]

Thanks a lot for this, @ayaangazali! This fixes three proto comments that claimed SdkInitPhase1Request's request_timeout_ms/max_retries and VoiceAgentComposeConfig's instructions/llm_generation are honored, when nothing in commons actually reads any of them -- so SDK users stop building on config that's silently ignored.

Checked: CodeRabbit reviewed the latest commit · CI green · built and linted locally merged into main (idl SCHEMA_LOCK/VERSION drift check, agents-claude sync, no-hardcoded-defaults, deprecated-surfaces, convenience-generator tests) · two independent code reviews.

Two small things, totally optional for a follow-up commit: the max_retries note says retries "exist on exactly one platform," but commons' download orchestrator does retry internally (kMaxAttempts=4) and Kotlin's OkHttp client sets retryOnConnectionFailure(true) -- it's really just this field that only Web reads, not retries in general. And the llm_generation note (idl/voice_agent_service.proto:112) still points at "the note on instructions below," but that sentence was removed from the instructions comment in this same PR.

Follow-ups, not blocking: #907 (wiring request_timeout_ms/max_retries into the transports), #908 (threading llm_generation/instructions into the voice LLM call), #909 (turn_detection and language have the same documented-but-unread gap) -- you're welcome to pick these up.

Merging now -- really appreciate the contribution!

Reviewed with help from Claude Code and Codex.