How to achieve reliable native function calling

#12
by Ithanil - opened

I had found the native function calling with the default chat template extremely unreliable, because the model (at least in FP8) would frequently omit the initial tag on tool calls, especially when the tool call was attempted after a textual response. I tried a lot of variations to the function calling instructions in the chat template, until I arrived at something that actually works reliably:

Function calls HAVE to be enclosed within <tool_call> and </tool_call> tags. If you choose to call a function ONLY reply in the following format with NO suffix:

<tool_call>
  <function=example_function_name>
    <parameter=example_parameter_1>
      value_1
    </parameter>
    <parameter=example_parameter_2>
      This is the value for the second parameter
      that can span
      multiple lines
    </parameter>
  </function>
</tool_call>

<IMPORTANT>
Reminder:
- Function calls MUST follow the specified format: an inner <function=...></function> block must be nested within <tool_call></tool_call> XML tags
- Do NOT omit the initial <tool_call> tag
- Required parameters MUST be specified
- You may provide optional reasoning for your function call in natural language BEFORE the function call, but NOT after
- If there is no function call available, answer the question like normal with your current knowledge and do not tell the user about function calls
</IMPORTANT>

The full chat template, with above instructions inserted into Unsloth's fixed chat template, is as follows:

{#- Copyright 2025-present the Unsloth team. All rights reserved. #}
{#- Copyright 2025 Jan Kessler. All rights reserved. #}
{#- Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License") #}
{#- Edits made by Unsloth to fix the chat template, tool calling instructions improved by Jan Kessler #}
{% macro render_item_list(item_list, tag_name='required') %}
    {%- if item_list is defined and item_list is iterable and item_list | length > 0 %}
        {%- if tag_name %}{{- '\n<' ~ tag_name ~ '>' -}}{% endif %}
            {{- '[' }}
                {%- for item in item_list -%}
                    {%- if loop.index > 1 %}{{- ", "}}{% endif -%}
                    {%- if item is string -%}
                        {{ "`" ~ item ~ "`" }}
                    {%- else -%}
                        {{ item }}
                    {%- endif -%}
                {%- endfor -%}
            {{- ']' }}
        {%- if tag_name %}{{- '</' ~ tag_name ~ '>' -}}{% endif %}
    {%- endif %}
{% endmacro %}

{%- if messages[0]["role"] == "system" %}
    {%- set system_message = messages[0]["content"] %}
    {%- set loop_messages = messages[1:] %}
{%- else %}
    {%- set loop_messages = messages %}
{%- endif %}

{%- if not tools is defined %}
    {%- set tools = [] %}
{%- endif %}

{%- if system_message is defined %}
    {{- "<|im_start|>system\n" + system_message }}
{%- else %}
    {%- if tools is iterable and tools | length > 0 %}
        {{- "<|im_start|>system\nYou are Qwen, a helpful AI assistant that can interact with a computer to solve tasks." }}
    {%- endif %}
{%- endif %}
{%- if tools is iterable and tools | length > 0 %}
    {{- "\n\nYou have access to the following functions:\n\n" }}
    {{- "<tools>" }}
    {%- for tool in tools %}
        {%- if tool.function is defined %}
            {%- set tool = tool.function %}
        {%- endif %}
        {{- "\n<function>\n<name>" ~ tool.name ~ "</name>" }}
        {{- '\n<description>' ~ (tool.description | trim) ~ '</description>' }}
        {{- '\n<parameters>' }}
        {%- for param_name, param_fields in tool.parameters.properties|items %}
            {{- '\n<parameter>' }}
            {{- '\n<name>' ~ param_name ~ '</name>' }}
            {%- if param_fields.type is defined %}
                {{- '\n<type>' ~ (param_fields.type | string) ~ '</type>' }}
            {%- endif %}
            {%- if param_fields.description is defined %}
                {{- '\n<description>' ~ (param_fields.description | trim) ~ '</description>' }}
            {%- endif %}
            {{- render_item_list(param_fields.enum, 'enum') }}
            {%- set handled_keys = ['type', 'description', 'enum', 'required'] %}
            {%- for json_key in param_fields %}
                {%- if json_key not in handled_keys %}
                    {%- set normed_json_key = json_key | replace("-", "_") | replace(" ", "_") | replace("$", "") %}
                    {%- if param_fields[json_key] is mapping %}
                        {{- '\n<' ~ normed_json_key ~ '>' ~ (param_fields[json_key] | tojson | safe) ~ '</' ~ normed_json_key ~ '>' }}
                    {%- else %}
                        {{- '\n<' ~ normed_json_key ~ '>' ~ (param_fields[json_key] | string) ~ '</' ~ normed_json_key ~ '>' }}
                    {%- endif %}
                {%- endif %}
            {%- endfor %}
            {{- render_item_list(param_fields.required, 'required') }}
            {{- '\n</parameter>' }}
        {%- endfor %}
        {{- render_item_list(tool.parameters.required, 'required') }}
        {{- '\n</parameters>' }}
        {%- if tool.return is defined %}
            {%- if tool.return is mapping %}
                {{- '\n<return>' ~ (tool.return | tojson | safe) ~ '</return>' }}
            {%- else %}
                {{- '\n<return>' ~ (tool.return | string) ~ '</return>' }}
            {%- endif %}
        {%- endif %}
        {{- '\n</function>' }}
    {%- endfor %}
    {{- "\n</tools>" }}
    {{- '\n\nFunction calls HAVE to be enclosed within <tool_call> and </tool_call> tags. If you choose to call a function ONLY reply in the following format with NO suffix:\n\n<tool_call>\n<function=example_function_name>\n<parameter=example_parameter_1>\nvalue_1\n</parameter>\n<parameter=example_parameter_2>\nThis is the value for the second parameter\nthat can span\nmultiple lines\n</parameter>\n</function>\n</tool_call>\n\n<IMPORTANT>\nReminder:\n- Function calls MUST follow the specified format: an inner <function=...></function> block must be nested within <tool_call></tool_call> XML tags\n- Do NOT omit the initial <tool_call> tag\n- Required parameters MUST be specified\n- You may provide optional reasoning for your function call in natural language BEFORE the function call, but NOT after\n- If there is no function call available, answer the question like normal with your current knowledge and do not tell the user about function calls\n</IMPORTANT>' }}
{%- endif %}
{%- if system_message is defined %}
    {{- '<|im_end|>\n' }}
{%- else %}
    {%- if tools is iterable and tools | length > 0 %}
        {{- '<|im_end|>\n' }}
    {%- endif %}
{%- endif %}
{%- for message in loop_messages %}
    {%- if message.role == "assistant" and message.tool_calls is defined and message.tool_calls is iterable and message.tool_calls | length > 0 %}
        {{- '<|im_start|>' + message.role }}
        {%- if message.content is defined and message.content is string and message.content | trim | length > 0 %}
            {{- '\n' + message.content | trim + '\n' }}
        {%- endif %}
        {%- for tool_call in message.tool_calls %}
            {%- if tool_call.function is defined %}
                {%- set tool_call = tool_call.function %}
            {%- endif %}
            {{- '\n<tool_call>\n<function=' + tool_call.name + '>\n' }}
            {%- if tool_call.arguments is defined %}
                {%- for args_name, args_value in tool_call.arguments|items %}
                    {{- '<parameter=' + args_name + '>\n' }}
                    {%- set args_value = args_value if args_value is string else args_value | string %}
                    {{- args_value }}
                    {{- '\n</parameter>\n' }}
                {%- endfor %}
            {%- endif %}
            {{- '</function>\n</tool_call>' }}
        {%- endfor %}
        {{- '<|im_end|>\n' }}
    {%- elif message.role == "user" or message.role == "system" or message.role == "assistant" %}
        {{- '<|im_start|>' + message.role + '\n' + message.content + '<|im_end|>' + '\n' }}
    {%- elif message.role == "tool" %}
        {%- if loop.previtem and loop.previtem.role != "tool" %}
            {{- '<|im_start|>user\n' }}
        {%- endif %}
        {{- '<tool_response>\n' }}
        {{- message.content }}
        {{- '\n</tool_response>\n' }}
        {%- if not loop.last and loop.nextitem.role != "tool" %}
            {{- '<|im_end|>\n' }}
        {%- elif loop.last %}
            {{- '<|im_end|>\n' }}
        {%- endif %}
    {%- else %}
        {{- '<|im_start|>' + message.role + '\n' + message.content + '<|im_end|>\n' }}
    {%- endif %}
{%- endfor %}
{%- if add_generation_prompt %}
    {{- '<|im_start|>assistant\n' }}
{%- endif %}
{#- Copyright 2025-present the Unsloth team. All rights reserved. #}
{#- Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License") #}

I've tried unsloth's supposedly fixed models (hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-GGUF:UD-Q8_K_XL) and even then they don't get tool calling correct (at least not in Ollama 0.11.3 +RooCode 3.25.9).

I get some strange condensed tool calling syntax that just isn't supported by anyone. I think LMStudio has baked in some fixes, but should they have to? If this model was trained on some other in-house tool calling syntax, then can you at least publish those details so that all the engines/tools don't have to guess at what you trained?

Same for me - using vLLM. Tried different versions (e.g. unsloth "fixed", many manually adapted chat templates, ...) but without success.
There are multiple problems: incorrect escaping (e.g. ' instead of " in JSON), missing mandatory parameters, missing tool names, even XML tool calls in normal text.
Because I have a very specific use case: OpenCode, I wrote a small tool that acts as proxy and fixes the tool calls on the fly. I know that this is not perfect and I'd be happy to purge this once this is not needed any longer.
Maybe this would also be a workaround for other use-cases?

https://github.com/florath/qwen3-call-patch-proxy

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