Kimi native web search exceeded the

Error message

Kimi native web search exceeded the {MAX_NATIVE_SEARCH_TOOL_CALLS}-call safety limit

What it means

All Kimi web-search variants share a hard safety cap: at most MAX_NATIVE_SEARCH_TOOL_CALLS (8) tool calls per search request, counted across all rounds, not per round. reserve_native_search_tool_calls adds the round's call count to the running total (checked_add guards overflow) and bails if the total would exceed the cap.

Solutions

Reduce query breadth so fewer total searches are needed
Raise MAX_NATIVE_SEARCH_TOOL_CALLS to accommodate multi-round workloads
Restructure the task into multiple smaller search requests
Accept the failure and fall back to non-native search

Example fix

// before
const MAX_NATIVE_SEARCH_TOOL_CALLS: usize = 8;
// after
const MAX_NATIVE_SEARCH_TOOL_CALLS: usize = 12; // allow 2 rounds of 6 parallel searches

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

match provider.search(req).await {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("-call safety limit") => {
        warn!("Kimi search hit the 8-call cap; reducing parallel searches");
        provider.search(req.with_fewer_rounds()).await
    }
    other => other,
}

Prevention

Remember the cap is cumulative across rounds, not per round
Keep each round's parallel tool-call count small (<= 8 total)
Raise the constant deliberately with cost/latency review

When it happens

Trigger: search_builtin or search_formula reserves a round whose call count pushes the cumulative total above 8; also exercised directly by test native_search_tool_call_limit_is_total_not_per_round.

Common situations: A model issuing many parallel searches in one round (e.g. two rounds of 5 calls = 10 > 8); very search-hungry queries; a mistaken assumption that the limit resets per round.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@73e0f67d83 (2026-09-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2ae4850af7cb0735. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/tui/src/client/provider_native_search/kimi.rs:220

                )
                .await?;
            messages.push(json!({
                "role": "tool",
                "tool_call_id": id,
                "content": formula_fiber_result(&fiber)?,
            }));
        }
    }

    bail!("Kimi Formula web search exceeded the bounded tool-call loop")
}

fn reserve_native_search_tool_calls(executed: &mut usize, additional: usize) -> Result<()> {
    let total = executed
        .checked_add(additional)
        .context("Kimi native web search tool-call count overflowed")?;
    if total > MAX_NATIVE_SEARCH_TOOL_CALLS {
        bail!(
            "Kimi native web search exceeded the {MAX_NATIVE_SEARCH_TOOL_CALLS}-call safety limit"
        );
    }
    *executed = total;
    Ok(())
}

fn formula_web_search_tools(payload: &Value) -> Result<Value> {
    let tools = payload
        .get("tools")
        .and_then(Value::as_array)
        .context("Kimi web-search Formula omitted tools")?;
    if tools.len() != 1
        || tools[0].get("type").and_then(Value::as_str) != Some("function")
        || tools[0].pointer("/function/name").and_then(Value::as_str)
            != Some(WEB_SEARCH_FORMULA_FUNCTION)
    {
        bail!("Kimi web-search Formula returned an unexpected tool declaration");

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