qwen3 provided by ollama failed to call tools

[leozzyzheng]

Before submitting your bug report

• I believe this is a bug. I'll try to join the Continue Discord for questions
• I'm not able to find an open issue that reports the same bug
• I've seen the troubleshooting guide on the Continue Docs

Relevant environment info

- OS: Windows11 24H2
- Continue version: v
- IDE version: VSCode 1.102.0
- Model: qwen3 8b
- config:

name: Local Assistant
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1
models:
  - name: Qwen3 8B
    provider: ollama
    model: qwen3:8b
    apiBase: http://localhost:11434/
    roles:
      - autocomplete
      - chat
      - edit
      - apply
    capabilities:
      - tool_use
context:
  - provider: code
  - provider: docs
  - provider: diff
  - provider: terminal
  - provider: problems
  - provider: folder
  - provider: codebase
  - provider: url

Description

Continue failed to call tools when using qwen3 provided by ollama, see screenshot in the following.

To reproduce

1. Config ollama and install qwen3:8b
2. Config YAML add tool_use
3. Use Agent mode to ask weather
4. Never see Continue is generating output to search the web for "weather in New York" completed.

Log output

[leozzyzheng]

The original response from ollama

{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:43.542760407Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"\u003cthink\u003e"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:43.601422785Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"\n"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:43.635235781Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"Okay"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:43.671292262Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":","},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:43.708144102Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" the"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:43.744937363Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" user"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:43.785307451Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" is"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:43.825082577Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" asking"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:43.86336331Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" about"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:43.899925262Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" the"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:43.934425566Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" weather"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:43.969835136Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" in"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.010001336Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" New"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.047868782Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" York"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.086181475Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"."},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.123174753Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" Let"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.158514368Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" me"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.194254507Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" check"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.231473114Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" which"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.268625104Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" tools"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.308597928Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" I"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.347137428Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" have"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.382931203Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" available"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.417070302Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"."},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.4534964Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" There"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.491154575Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"'s"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.530491119Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" the"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.567393714Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" search"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.603782751Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"_web"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.642454882Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" function"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.678830217Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":","},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.718894178Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" which"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.75657964Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" is"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.793507798Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" for"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.831197859Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" performing"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.866422864Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" a"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.901675017Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" web"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.937527077Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" search"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:44.978200291Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"."},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.017467483Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" Since"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.05630324Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" weather"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.093834265Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" information"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.129637811Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" isn"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.166021707Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"'t"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.205852101Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" something"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.24339429Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" I"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.28119279Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" can"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.319076117Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" know"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.357022409Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" in"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.394159476Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" real"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.432527321Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"-time"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.468781421Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":","},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.508079408Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" I"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.545640693Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" should"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.583297784Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" use"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.621443811Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" that"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.657998586Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" tool"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.693817475Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" to"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.730696343Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" get"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.770824458Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" the"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.808700553Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" latest"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.846389589Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" data"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.88481852Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"."},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.922475264Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" I"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.959729586Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"'ll"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:45.998109594Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" need"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.03430592Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" to"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.073469716Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" structure"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.111541263Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" the"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.148962981Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" tool"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.187861442Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" call"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.225488175Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" with"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.261421452Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" the"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.298472058Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" query"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.334425722Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" parameter"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.375731845Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" set"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.414308435Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" to"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.45186289Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" \""},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.491207252Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"weather"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.529189733Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" in"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.56456414Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" New"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.599470303Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" York"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.635047238Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"\"."},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.675241122Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" Let"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.714812801Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" me"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.755344913Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" make"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.794839762Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" sure"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.833059563Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" I"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.869750491Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"'m"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.905466855Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" using"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.942847717Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" the"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:46.979413751Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" correct"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.017945485Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" function"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.057431087Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" name"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.095950051Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" and"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.13206362Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" parameters"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.166475015Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"."},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.202968134Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" Yep"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.24157095Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":","},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.280447595Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" search"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.321293813Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"_web"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.3622974Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" takes"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.401916367Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" a"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.440819241Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" query"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.477848987Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" string"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.51421742Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"."},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.551819523Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" I"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.587919569Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"'ll"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.622500791Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" format"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.657836528Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" the"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.69327809Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" JSON"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.72895913Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":" accordingly"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.769427772Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":".\n"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.807954369Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"\u003c/think\u003e"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:47.845305305Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"\n\n"},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:48.61209785Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":"","tool_calls":[{"function":{"name":"search_web","arguments":{"query":"weather in New York"}}}]},"done":false}
{"model":"qwen3:8b","created_at":"2025-07-15T03:22:48.684515834Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":""},"done_reason":"stop","done":true,"total_duration":13365791310,"load_duration":5676065145,"prompt_eval_count":1879,"prompt_eval_duration":2509660322,"eval_count":138,"eval_duration":5149119552}

[leozzyzheng]

Built continue locally and find the related line:
(https://github.com/continuedev/continue/blame/main/gui/src/redux/slices/sessionSlice.ts#L428)

            lastMessage.role !== message.role ||
            // This is for when a tool call comes immediately before/after tool call
            (lastMessage.role === "assistant" &&
              message.role === "assistant" &&
              // Last message isn't completely new
              !(!lastMessage.toolCalls?.length && !lastMessage.content) &&
              // And there's a difference in tool call presence
              (lastMessage.toolCalls?.length ?? 0) !==
                (message.toolCalls?.length ?? 0))

Ollama response an empty content message after a tool call, so I think we need also check message.toolCalls?.length is non-empty before we can create a new message. Otherwise, the tool_call message will not be the last message.

I modify code locally and can confirm it works.

[brandonbiggs]

I'm also seeing something that I think is related. I'm using Devstral though and tool calls don't seem to be working.

[leozzyzheng]

I'm also seeing something that I think is related. I'm using Devstral though and tool calls don't seem to be working.

@brandonbiggs Just fixed it on my fork(#6626), you can try build locally to see whether it also fix your case.

[seros1521]

Workaround - use ollama OpenAI compatibility:

models:
- name: "qwen3_via_ollama_openapi"
  provider: "openai"
  apiBase: "http://localhost:11434/v1/"
  model: "qwen3"

I don't know why this works.

[NGC13009]

I encountered the same problem today, and after several hours of troubleshooting, I finally located the issue. I wanted to raise an issue but found that it had already been reported here.

I think this is not a fault of qwen3. According to my testing, this is a fault of continue calling ollama. And the problem must be in continue rather than ollama, because with the same configuration as @seros1521, it works normally.

By examining the console logs, it can be seen that continue does not proceed with any further operations. Using provider: ollama leads to this issue, but setting it to the openai format allows it to work properly.

If this issue cannot be fixed in a timely manner, we can only make do with it for now