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    typing.Literal Claudetools Sphinx documentation Pydantic validation dictionary keys type-checking runtime handling max_tokens limit


What are the common errors encountered when using typing.Literal with dictionaries in Claudetools


here are some common errors that can be encountered when using `typing.Literal` with dictionaries in Claudetools:

1. Incorrect representation of `Literal` types: The search results indicate that the Sphinx documentation tool can sometimes represent `Literal` types incorrectly, rendering `Literal["a", "b"]` as `Literal[a, b]`. This can lead to confusing documentation.

2. Improper escaping of `Literal` values: Another issue that can arise is that variable annotations containing `Literal` types with special characters (like newlines) may not be properly escaped when generating the documentation, leading to incorrect rendering.

3. Validation errors with dictionary keys: When using `Dict[Literal[...], ...]` type annotations, Pydantic (which Claudetools uses for type validation) will raise an error if the dictionary keys do not match the specified `Literal` types.

4. Handling arbitrary `Literal` types: The search results suggest that while `Literal` only accepts a limited set of types at type-checking time (integers, strings, booleans, etc.), it can accept any parameters at runtime. This can complicate the handling and stringification of `Literal` types in some cases.

5. Incomplete tool use blocks due to token limits: If the response from Claudetools is truncated due to hitting the `max_tokens` limit, and the truncated response contains an incomplete tool use block, you may need to retry the request with a higher `max_tokens` value to get the full tool use.

To address these issues, the key recommendations from the search results are:

- Ensure that your documentation generation tools (like Sphinx) correctly handle the representation of `Literal` types.
- Properly escape any special characters in your `Literal` type annotations to ensure correct rendering.
- Carefully define your `Dict[Literal[...], ...]` types to match the expected dictionary keys.
- Be prepared to handle a wide range of `Literal` types at runtime, even if the type-checking is more restrictive.
- Monitor for truncated responses and adjust the `max_tokens` limit as needed.

By being aware of these potential pitfalls and following best practices, you can effectively use `typing.Literal` with dictionaries in your Claudetools integrations.

Citations:
[1] https://testdriven.io/tips/c61d55d8-caa7-4ab4-b611-7356bddc0181/
[2] https://typing.readthedocs.io/en/latest/spec/literal.html
[3] https://github.com/sphinx-doc/sphinx/issues/9195
[4] https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/build-with-claude/tool-use
[5] https://github.com/microsoft/python-language-server/issues/1648