How to limit tool call steps but still get an answer?

[wong2]

I provided the model with a web search tool, but some models use the tool excessively (e.g., searching more than 10 times in one session), which affects the user experience. So, I want to limit the search to a maximum of 5 times in one Q&A session and then respond based on those 5 search results.

I tried stopWhen: stepCountIs(5), but this stops after 5 searches. I also tried using prepareStep, returning an empty activeTools after step>=5, but that didn't work either.

Has anyone ever done something like this?

[lgrammel]

you can implement your own StopCondition that counts how often a certain tool was invoked since the last user message and pass that in:

export type StopCondition<TOOLS extends ToolSet> = (options: {
  steps: Array<StepResult<TOOLS>>;
}) => PromiseLike<boolean> | boolean;

[wong2]

@lgrammel I don't want the generation to stop, I want it stop calling tools and generate an answer based on existing tool calls & tool results.

[lgrammel]

@wong2 you could use something similar inside the prepareStep function, i.e. detect the condition and prevent tool usage via toolChoice: none

[wong2]

@lgrammel Yeah I've tried that, the result is that different providers have different behaviour. For example, Claude will just stop generation.