Bug: A /v1/responses request does not return

API Bugs
,
1

The following request does not return (curl does not produce any output and does not exit), I waited for more than 10 min:
time curl https://api.openai.com/v1/responses -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer KEY" -d '{"instructions":"Is the person identified by the input an active scientist or FOSS dev?\nAnswer no, if he/she is an obvious science crackpot in his/her field.\nHowever, answer yes, even is he/she is a hobbyist.","input":"User account information:\nGitHub: vporton","model":"gpt-5-nano-2025-08-07","reasoning":null,"tools":[{"type":"web_search"}],"tool_choice":"required","text":{"format":{"type":"json_schema","name":"response","schema":{"type":"object","properties":{"isActiveScientistOrFOSSDev":{"type":"boolean","description":"Whether the person is an active scientist or FOSS developer"},"why":{"type":"string","description":"Explanation of the decision"}},"required":["isActiveScientistOrFOSSDev","why"],"additionalProperties":false},"strict":true},"verbosity":"medium"}}'

2

Not a bug. A problem with the API call.

  1. “tool_choice”: “required”, with an internal tool, is going to force the AI model to do nothing but be able to send to tools over and over, without forming a final output.
  2. gpt-5-nano and gpt-4.1-nano is a terrible model to try, it will go into loops of internal nonstop reasoning or internal tool calling.
  3. Ask the AI nice questions or you might get a refusal in the output list instead of a JSON.

I got a timeout with max_output_tokens: 5000. Without it, CURL is still going and will probably come up with a million tokens spent.

You need to cut off these tool calls gone crazy with "max_tool_calls": 3, or so.

Request JSON:

{
  "instructions": "Is the person identified by the input an active scientist or FOSS dev?\nAnswer no, if he/she is an obvious science crackpot in his/her field.\nHowever, answer yes, even is he/she is a hobbyist.",
  "input": "User account information:\nGitHub: vporton",
  "model": "gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07",
  "reasoning": {
    "effort": "low"
  },
  "tools": [
    {
      "type": "web_search"
    }
  ],
  "max_tool_calls": 3,
  "text": {
    "format": {
      "type": "json_schema",
      "name": "response",
      "schema": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "isActiveScientistOrFOSSDev": {
            "type": "boolean",
            "description": "Whether the person is an active scientist or FOSS developer"
          },
          "why": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Explanation of the decision"
          }
        },
        "required": [
          "isActiveScientistOrFOSSDev",
          "why"
        ],
        "additionalProperties": false
      },
      "strict": true
    },
    "verbosity": "medium"
  },
  "max_output_tokens": 5000
}

Collected response text:
['{"isActiveScientistOrFOSSDev":true,"why":"The GitHub account \'vporton\' hosts active open-source projects (e.g., forks and repos for blockchain/IC, wrap-tokens, join-proxy, developer-portal fork, NacDB, etc.) and a research-oriented repository (algebraic-general-topology). That indicates ongoing FOSS development and self-published mathematical research. The profile also contains extraordinary personal/scientific claims (P=NP proof, ‘smartest person’ statements and unusual anecdotes) that suggest some fringe or non-standard views, but the presence of numerous maintained repositories and code contributions supports classifying the person as an active FOSS developer and as someone presenting themselves as an active researcher."}']

| ------------------- | ------------------ |

input tokens: 13055 output tokens: 289
uncached: 4735 non-reasoning: 161
cached: 8320 reasoning: 128

gpt-5-mini
Response JSON:

Summary 
{
  "id": "resp_1234",
  "object": "response",
  "created_at": 1757877941,
  "status": "completed",
  "background": false,
  "error": null,
  "incomplete_details": null,
  "instructions": "Is the person identified by the input an active scientist or FOSS dev?\nAnswer no, if he/she is an obvious science crackpot in his/her field.\nHowever, answer yes, even is he/she is a hobbyist.",
  "max_output_tokens": 5000,
  "max_tool_calls": 3,
  "model": "gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07",
  "output": [
    {
      "id": "rs_1234",
      "type": "reasoning",
      "summary": []
    },
    {
      "id": "ws_1234",
      "type": "web_search_call",
      "status": "completed",
      "action": {
        "type": "search",
        "query": "vporton GitHub"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "rs_1234",
      "type": "reasoning",
      "summary": []
    },
    {
      "id": "msg_1234",
      "type": "message",
      "status": "completed",
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "output_text",
          "annotations": [],
          "logprobs": [],
          "text": "{\"isActiveScientistOrFOSSDev\":true,\"why\":\"The GitHub account 'vporton' hosts active open-source projects (e.g., forks and repos for blockchain/IC, wrap-tokens, join-proxy, developer-portal fork, NacDB, etc.) and a research-oriented repository (algebraic-general-topology). That indicates ongoing FOSS development and self-published mathematical research. The profile also contains extraordinary personal/scientific claims (P=NP proof, \u2018smartest person\u2019 statements and unusual anecdotes) that suggest some fringe or non-standard views, but the presence of numerous maintained repositories and code contributions supports classifying the person as an active FOSS developer and as someone presenting themselves as an active researcher.\"}"
        }
      ],
      "role": "assistant"
    }
  ],
  "parallel_tool_calls": true,
  "previous_response_id": null,
  "prompt_cache_key": null,
  "reasoning": {
    "effort": "low",
    "summary": null
  },
  "safety_identifier": null,
  "service_tier": "default",
  "store": true,
  "temperature": 1.0,
  "text": {
    "format": {
      "type": "json_schema",
      "description": null,
      "name": "response",
      "schema": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "isActiveScientistOrFOSSDev": {
            "type": "boolean",
            "description": "Whether the person is an active scientist or FOSS developer"
          },
          "why": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Explanation of the decision"
          }
        },
        "required": [
          "isActiveScientistOrFOSSDev",
          "why"
        ],
        "additionalProperties": false
      },
      "strict": true
    },
    "verbosity": "medium"
  },
  "tool_choice": "auto",
  "tools": [
    {
      "type": "web_search",
      "filters": null,
      "search_context_size": "medium",
      "user_location": {
        "type": "approximate",
        "city": null,
        "country": "US",
        "region": null,
        "timezone": null
      }
    }
  ],
  "top_logprobs": 0,
  "top_p": 1.0,
  "truncation": "disabled",
  "usage": {
    "input_tokens": 13055,
    "input_tokens_details": {
      "cached_tokens": 8320
    },
    "output_tokens": 289,
    "output_tokens_details": {
      "reasoning_tokens": 128
    },
    "total_tokens": 13344
  },
  "user": null,
  "metadata": {}
}