[jira] [Commented] (CAMEL-23955) camel-openai: conversation memory never persists user turns and the systemMessage reset is a no-op

["Omar Atie (Jira)" <ji...@apache.org>]

    [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CAMEL-23955?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=18097210#comment-18097210 ] 

Omar Atie commented on CAMEL-23955:
-----------------------------------

I would like to work on https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CAMEL-23955

> camel-openai: conversation memory never persists user turns and the systemMessage reset is a no-op
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: CAMEL-23955
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CAMEL-23955
>             Project: Camel
>          Issue Type: Bug
>          Components: camel-openai
>    Affects Versions: 4.21.0
>            Reporter: Federico Mariani
>            Priority: Major
>              Labels: ai
>         Attachments: OpenAIConversationMemoryResetTest.java, OpenAIConversationMemoryUserMessageTest.java
>
>
> Two defects in the {{conversationMemory}} feature of the chat-completion operation, both present since the component was introduced (commit ac0b0e87f26a, CAMEL-22661).
> h3. 1. User turns are never stored in the conversation history
> {{OpenAIProducer.updateConversationHistory}} (all three overloads, around lines 663-751) only appends the *assistant* response to the {{CamelOpenAIConversationHistory}} exchange property. The user message that produced that response is never added. On the next call the model therefore sees assistant answers without the user questions that produced them.
> Captured request of the second turn from the attached reproducer ({{OpenAIConversationMemoryUserMessageTest}}):
> {code}
> {"messages":[{"role":"assistant","content":"Nice to meet you!"},
>              {"content":"What is my name?","role":"user"}],"model":"gpt-5"}
> {code}
> The first user turn ("My name is Alice") is missing, contradicting the documented example in {{openai-component.adoc}} ("Conversation Memory (Per Exchange)": the second response "Will remember Alice"). {{OpenAIToolExecutionProducer}} even works around this bug by re-adding the user message from the hard-coded {{originalPrompt}} exchange property — evidence the history is known to be incomplete.
> The agentic MCP path has the same defect: {{agenticMessages}} contains assistant/tool messages but not the triggering user message.
> h3. 2. The documented history reset removes a header instead of the exchange property
> {{OpenAIProducer.buildMessages}} (lines 210-214):
> {code:java}
> // If a system message is configured and conversation memory is enabled, reset history
> if (ObjectHelper.isNotEmpty(config.getSystemMessage()) && config.isConversationMemory()) {
>     in.removeHeader(config.getConversationHistoryProperty());
> }
> {code}
> The conversation history is stored in an exchange *property* ({{addConversationHistory}} reads it via {{getExchange().getProperty(...)}}), so {{removeHeader}} never removes anything and stale history keeps being sent. This contradicts the option documentation ("When set and conversationMemory is enabled, the conversation history is reset") and {{openai-mcp.adoc}}. Reproducer: {{OpenAIConversationMemoryResetTest}} — the stale entry is still present in the captured request.
> h3. Suggested fix
> * Append the outgoing user message (and system/developer messages on the first turn, if desired) to the history in {{updateConversationHistory}}, for both the simple and the agentic paths.
> * Replace {{in.removeHeader(...)}} with {{exchange.removeProperty(...)}} — or reconsider whether the reset-on-systemMessage semantics make sense at all now that it never worked (nobody can have depended on it); if kept, document that it clears history on *every* call while {{systemMessage}} is set.
> Both reproducer tests are attached; they assert the documented behavior and fail on current main. Related: CAMEL-23394 (history size management) should be built on top of a corrected history.
> _This issue was drafted by Claude Code on behalf of Federico Mariani_



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