SaveFilesAsArtifactsPlugin: Unexpected Behavior

[tdakanalis]

I have created an agent that is configured with the SaveFilesAsArtifactsPlugin. I intentionally did not configure the load_artifact tool to ensure that the agent cannot use it to load any artifacts. I also configured the GcsArtifactService.

When I upload a file, I can see in the conversation history that everything appears as expected. For example:

 file_data:                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
  display_name: "The_One_Ring_Core_Rules_2401.pdf"                                                                                                                                                                                    
  file_uri: "gs://gma-bucket/game_master_agent/user/668335cc-e984-42ad-8d2f-81df5ad24778/The_One_Ring_Core_Rules_2401.pdf/0"                                                                                                          
  mime_type: "application/pdf" 

However, after the artifact was processed, I noticed a significant delay in each subsequent response from the LLM. From the logs, I found that the input token usage looked like this:

Token Usage - Input: 97424, Output: 29

I’m not sure how to interpret that, but it seems that the file’s payload ended up in the context.

To Reproduce
Please share a minimal code and data to reproduce your problem.
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install 'google-adk and create a basic agent with the SaveFilesAsArtifactsPlugin and the GcsArtifactService configured'
2. Run 'uv run adk web . --port 8000 --reload_agents --artifact_service_uri "gs://bucket"'
3. Upload a file and then ask anything else

Expected behavior
The input token usage should be close to the size of your question.

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Linux
• Python version: 3.12.7
• ADK version: 1.19.0

Model Information:

• Are you using LiteLLM: No
• Which model is being used: gemini-2.5-flash

[llalitkumarrr]

Hello @tdakanalis ,

Apologies for the delayed response.

The token count indicates that your agent might be reading the file saved as an artifact. Please check the metadata to verify where the tokens are being consumed. Also, if possible could you share your code snippet? This would help us understand the implementation better.

[adk-bot]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity for 7 days after a maintainer requested clarification. It will be closed if no further activity occurs within 7 days.

[adk-bot]

This has been automatically closed because it has been marked as stale for over 7 days.