Decomposing Answer.could_not_answer

paperqa/agents/main.py

@@ -121,10 +121,7 @@ async def run_agent(
     else:
         raise NotImplementedError(f"Didn't yet handle agent type {agent_type}.")
 
-    if (
-        "cannot answer" in answer.answer.lower()
-        and agent_status != AgentStatus.TRUNCATED
-    ):
+    if answer.could_not_answer and agent_status != AgentStatus.TRUNCATED:
         agent_status = AgentStatus.UNSURE
     # stop after, so overall isn't reported as long-running step.
     logger.info(

paperqa/agents/tools.py

@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ async def gen_answer(self, question: str, state: EnvironmentState) -> str:
             embedding_model=self.embedding_model,
         )
 
-        if "cannot answer" in state.answer.answer.lower():
+        if state.answer.could_not_answer:
             if self.settings.agent.wipe_context_on_answer_failure:
                 state.answer.contexts = []
                 state.answer.context = ""

paperqa/types.py

@@ -242,6 +242,10 @@ def filter_content_for_user(self) -> None:
             for c in self.contexts
         ]
 
+    @property
+    def could_not_answer(self) -> bool:
+        return "cannot answer" in self.answer.lower()
+
 
 class ChunkMetadata(BaseModel):
     """Metadata for chunking algorithm."""

tests/test_paperqa.py

@@ -773,7 +773,7 @@ def test_bad_context(stub_data_dir) -> None:
     answer = docs.query(
         "What do scientist estimate as the planetary composition of Jupyter?"
     )
-    assert "cannot answer" in answer.answer
+    assert answer.could_not_answer
 
 
 def test_repeat_keys(stub_data_dir) -> None: