How to return application data from Function?

[arielmoraes]

I'm trying to return some application data from some function output. For example, I queried something from my database and I want to return a structured representation of that object, without passing or serializing it to the model.

I tried a few things:

1. Create a custom AIContent, here nothing gets serialized and delivered to the model
2. Use FunctionResultContent, it expects a callId
3. Use any other AIContent (TextContent, UriContent etc), the additional properties are not available to the caller.

In other words, how can I inject some data and access it from the caller (where the RunStreamingAsync was called)?

EDIT: after a debug session, I found out that the AdditionalProperties can be accessed in the Result property of a FunctionResultContent.

EDIT: Another question, how to return data from the TextSearchProvider?

[moonbox3]

Have you explored using middleware for this? You can exit the function calling loop early, after your tool runs. If your tool returns the function in the specified "structured representation", you'll have access to that data, and avoid the last hop to the model where it puts a "natural language spin" on the original query (using the tool call results).

[arielmoraes]

I haven't tried with middleware, I ended up with a solution using a dictionary and passing it around.

How to caller can be aware of what's happening inside a middleware?

[moonbox3]

Not sure if I understand your question, so please help provide some more context, if needed. The dev is the author of the middleware. They have a handle on whether it's function-level middleware or agent-level middleware. You can read about it in our docs here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/agent-framework/agents/middleware/?pivots=programming-language-python