accumulate_delta drops tool_call fragments when one chunk has multiple entries at the same index #3203

Confirm this is an issue with the Python library and not an underlying OpenAI API

• This is an issue with the Python library

Describe the bug

When a streaming chunk contains two tool_calls entries with the same index, accumulate_delta stores them as two separate list elements instead of merging them. Observed in practice against vLLM with speculative decoding enabled. Subsequent chunks then merge into element [0] only, leaving element [1] orphaned. The reconstructed tool_calls[0].function.arguments is missing whichever fragment landed on [1] and is no longer parseable as JSON.

The OpenAPI spec permits this shape. tool_calls is an unconstrained array, and ChatCompletionMessageToolCallChunk only requires index:

ChatCompletionStreamResponseDelta:
  properties:
    tool_calls:
      type: array
      items:
        $ref: "#/components/schemas/ChatCompletionMessageToolCallChunk"

See also #3201 , which is the same issue but with a narrower scope. (I can move this to a comment there if needed).

The cause is two early-return branches at the top of the per-key loop in _deltas.py:

for key, delta_value in delta.items():
    if key not in acc:          # L8-10: key absent
        acc[key] = delta_value
        continue

    acc_value = acc[key]
    if acc_value is None:       # L13-15: value is None
        acc[key] = delta_value
        continue

Both assign the delta list wholesale and skip the index merge logic that handles duplicate indexes in steady state. So any duplicate-index entries in the very first chunk slip through unmerged.

_assistants.py has identical merge logic with the same bug. _convert_initial_chunk_into_snapshot in _completions.py uses "message": choice.delta.to_dict() to seed the snapshot, which copies the raw delta array without an index merge. So the bug also triggers on the very first chunk of a stream.

In the Node SDK (openai@6.36.0), ChatCompletionStream.ts (lines 316-337) doesn't have the short circuit. It always loops and dispatches by index, and produces the correct result on this input. AssistantStream.accumulateDelta (lines 213-270) has the same fast-path logic and the same bug.

To Reproduce

import json
from openai.lib.streaming._deltas import accumulate_delta

acc = {"tool_calls": None}

# Simulates a first chunk with two entries at index=0
# (e.g. tool name + first argument fragment in one SSE event)
accumulate_delta(acc, {"tool_calls": [
    {"index": 0, "id": "call_abc", "function": {"name": "get_weather"}, "type": "function"},
    {"index": 0, "function": {"arguments": '{"city"'}},
]})
accumulate_delta(acc, {"tool_calls": [
    {"index": 0, "function": {"arguments": ': "London"}'}},
]})

args = acc["tool_calls"][0]["function"]["arguments"]
try:
    json.loads(args)
except json.JSONDecodeError as e:
    print("arguments not parseable:", e)
print("orphan entry:", acc["tool_calls"][1])

Expected: arguments == '{"city": "London"}', parses to {"city": "London"}.

Actual: arguments == ': "London"}'. The '{"city"' prefix ended up on acc["tool_calls"][1].

Code snippets

OS

macOS

Python version

Python v3.14.2

Library version

openai v2.35.0