Tools not being included and outbound request

[gordon-vart]

I am using the source generator mechanism. The outbound request does not contain my custom tool definition. ","stream":true,"tools":[{}],"CustomHeaders":{}}". My assumption is that it would include the tool definition in the outbound request.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

    [OllamaTool]
    [Description("Searches a document collection for relevant content.")]
    public static async Task<string> SearchCollection(

        [Description("The identifier of the document collection to search.")]
    string collectionId,

        [Description("The user search query or keywords.")]
    string query,

        [Description("Maximum number of results to return.")]
    int maxResults = 5)

            var chat = new Chat(ollamaApiClient, systemPrompt);

            var tools = new List<object> { new CollectionTools() };

            // 
            await foreach (var message in chat.SendAsync(prompt, tools))

[Ganesh-403]

A couple of things are worth checking before assuming the source generator isn't working.

1. Verify the generated tool metadata

The [OllamaTool] attribute relies on the source generator to produce the tool schema. If the generator isn't running (or the generated files aren't being included), you'll end up with an empty tools payload such as:

"tools":[{}]

Try inspecting the generated files under the project's generated sources (or enable emitting compiler-generated files) to confirm that CollectionTools actually has a generated tool definition.

2. Check how the tools collection is being passed

You're currently doing:

var tools = new List<object> { new CollectionTools() };
await foreach (var message in chat.SendAsync(prompt, tools))

If CollectionTools is only acting as a marker for generated metadata, make sure you're passing the type or instance exactly as expected by the library. An empty object in the serialized request usually suggests the serializer isn't finding any generated metadata to emit.

3. Check your package version

Could you share which version of OllamaSharp you're using? There have been changes around tool calling across releases, so this could be a version-specific issue rather than a problem with your code.

4. Share a bit more context

If possible, could you also provide:

• Your .csproj (especially any source generator settings).
• The OllamaSharp package version.
• Whether CollectionTools is just a container for static methods marked with [OllamaTool], or if it contains other members as well.

That additional information would help determine whether this is a source generator issue, a serialization issue, or simply an API usage mismatch.

If this solves your problem, feel free to mark it as the accepted answer so others can find it easily.

[gordon-vart]

Thanks for the response. I eventually got things working but did not use the attribute/generator.

[Ganesh-403]

Thanks for the update! Glad you got it working.

Interesting that you ended up not using the attribute/source generator approach. If you get a chance, would you mind sharing what the root cause was or what approach you ended up using instead? I think it could be helpful for anyone else who runs into the same issue.

Thanks for following up!