fix(gateway): harden hidden-incomplete detection against the sentinel final_response

Follow-up to the salvaged #51657: the conversation loop returns the
retry-exhaustion sentinel as BOTH final_response and error, so the
original detector (which required final_response to be falsy) never
fired on real exhaustion turns — the sentinel text was delivered
verbatim into the channel, exactly the #51628 poisoning vector. Detect
the sentinel echo, blank it before empty-response normalization, and
never suppress a turn whose final_response is genuine model text.
Also: dedupe-guard mock fix in the test fixture (has_platform_message_id
must return False, not a truthy MagicMock) and two guard tests
(real answer never suppressed; interrupted/failed never classified).

gateway/run.py

@@ -2697,17 +2697,27 @@ def _normalize_empty_agent_response(
 
 
 def _is_gateway_hidden_reasoning_incomplete_turn(agent_result: dict) -> bool:
-    """Detect retry-exhausted turns with hidden reasoning but no visible answer."""
+    """Detect retry-exhausted turns with hidden reasoning but no visible answer.
+
+    The conversation loop returns the retry-exhaustion sentinel as BOTH
+    ``final_response`` and ``error`` ("Codex response remained incomplete
+    after 3 continuation attempts"), so ``final_response`` being non-empty
+    does not mean the model produced a visible answer. Treat the turn as
+    hidden when the error sentinel is present and ``final_response`` is
+    either empty or merely echoes that sentinel — any genuinely different
+    final text means the model DID answer and must be delivered.
+    """
     if not isinstance(agent_result, dict):
         return False
     if agent_result.get("failed") or agent_result.get("interrupted"):
         return False
-    if agent_result.get("final_response"):
-        return False
     if not agent_result.get("partial"):
         return False
-    error_text = str(agent_result.get("error", "") or "").lower()
+    error_text = str(agent_result.get("error", "") or "").strip()
-    return "remained incomplete after" in error_text
+    if "remained incomplete after" not in error_text.lower():
+        return False
+    final_response = str(agent_result.get("final_response") or "").strip()
+    return not final_response or final_response == error_text
 
 
 def _should_clear_resume_pending_after_turn(agent_result: dict) -> bool:
@@ -11825,6 +11835,14 @@ class GatewayRunner(GatewayAuthorizationMixin, GatewayKanbanWatchersMixin, Gatew
                 return None
 
             response = agent_result.get("final_response") or ""
+            # Hidden-reasoning-only retry exhaustion: the loop's sentinel text
+            # ("Codex response remained incomplete after 3 continuation
+            # attempts") doubles as final_response, so it would be delivered
+            # verbatim into the channel — where peer agents can ingest it as a
+            # completed assistant turn (#51628). Blank it here so the normal
+            # empty-response handling (and the suppression below) applies.
+            if _is_gateway_hidden_reasoning_incomplete_turn(agent_result):
+                response = ""
             try:
                 from gateway.response_filters import is_intentional_silence_agent_result
                 _intentional_silence = is_intentional_silence_agent_result(

tests/gateway/test_incomplete_gateway_turns.py

@@ -50,8 +50,12 @@ class CaptureSlackAdapter(BasePlatformAdapter):
 
 
 def _make_incomplete_result() -> dict:
+    # Mirror the REAL conversation-loop exhaustion shape: the sentinel text is
+    # returned as BOTH final_response and error (agent/conversation_loop.py's
+    # "remained incomplete after 3 continuation attempts" return).
+    _sentinel = "Codex response remained incomplete after 3 continuation attempts"
     return {
-        "final_response": None,
+        "final_response": _sentinel,
         "messages": [
             {"role": "user", "content": "hello"},
             {"role": "assistant", "content": ""},
@@ -62,7 +66,7 @@ def _make_incomplete_result() -> dict:
         "partial": True,
         "completed": False,
         "interrupted": False,
-        "error": "Codex response remained incomplete after 3 continuation attempts",
+        "error": _sentinel,
         "last_prompt_tokens": 0,
     }
 
@@ -89,6 +93,10 @@ def _make_runner(adapter: CaptureSlackAdapter) -> gateway_run.GatewayRunner:
     runner.session_store.rewrite_transcript = MagicMock()
     runner.session_store.append_to_transcript = MagicMock()
     runner.session_store.update_session = MagicMock()
+    # The transient-failure persistence path dedupes on platform message_id
+    # (#47237). A bare MagicMock returns a truthy mock, which would wrongly
+    # mark the user turn as a duplicate and skip persisting it.
+    runner.session_store.has_platform_message_id = MagicMock(return_value=False)
     runner._running_agents = {}
     runner._pending_messages = {}
     runner._pending_approvals = {}
@@ -116,15 +124,38 @@ def _make_event() -> MessageEvent:
 def test_incomplete_codex_warning_is_not_surfaced_as_chat_text():
     agent_result = _make_incomplete_result()
 
+    # Mirror the gateway pipeline: the hidden-turn detector blanks the
+    # sentinel final_response BEFORE empty-response normalization runs.
+    response = agent_result.get("final_response") or ""
+    assert gateway_run._is_gateway_hidden_reasoning_incomplete_turn(agent_result)
+    response = ""
+
     response = gateway_run._normalize_empty_agent_response(
         agent_result,
-        agent_result.get("final_response") or "",
+        response,
         history_len=4,
     )
 
     assert response == ""
 
 
+def test_real_answer_alongside_incomplete_error_is_never_suppressed():
+    """A turn whose final_response is genuine model text (not the sentinel
+    echo) must be delivered even when the error field carries the
+    retry-exhaustion sentinel — suppression is only for hidden turns."""
+    agent_result = _make_incomplete_result()
+    agent_result["final_response"] = "Here is the actual answer."
+
+    assert not gateway_run._is_gateway_hidden_reasoning_incomplete_turn(agent_result)
+
+
+def test_interrupted_or_failed_turns_are_not_classified_hidden():
+    for key in ("interrupted", "failed"):
+        agent_result = _make_incomplete_result()
+        agent_result[key] = True
+        assert not gateway_run._is_gateway_hidden_reasoning_incomplete_turn(agent_result)
+
+
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
 async def test_incomplete_codex_turn_stays_out_of_slack_transcript(monkeypatch, tmp_path):
     adapter = CaptureSlackAdapter()