Plugin execution using semantic kernel causes error

[jais001]

Hi,

I have started using semantic kernel. I was trying out a simple plugin execution where the plugin takes some extra arguments, but iam getting error:

Function failed. Error: EmailPlugin.send_email() got multiple values for argument 'recipients'
Error invoking function send_email-send_email: EmailPlugin.send_email() got multiple values for argument 'recipients'.

I dont know what iam doing wrong, my code snippet is attached below. Can someone help me figure out the issue. Thanks in advance.

import semantic_kernel as sk
from typing import Annotated, List
from semantic_kernel.functions.kernel_function_decorator import kernel_function
import os
from semantic_kernel.connectors.ai.open_ai import OpenAIChatCompletion
from semantic_kernel.connectors.ai.open_ai.prompt_execution_settings.open_ai_prompt_execution_settings import (
    OpenAIChatPromptExecutionSettings,
)
from semantic_kernel.connectors.ai.function_choice_behavior import FunctionChoiceBehavior

service_id = "function_call"


# Define Semantic Kernel instance
kernel = sk.Kernel()


chat_completion = OpenAIChatCompletion(
      service_id=service_id,
      ai_model_id="gpt-4o-mini",
      api_key=""
   )
kernel.add_service(chat_completion)



class EmailPlugin:
    def __init__(self) -> None:
        pass

    @kernel_function(
            description="Takes recipient as list, cc as list  as input and sends email",
            name="send_email"
    )
    def send_email(
        # content: Annotated[str, "The input is the content for sending the mail"],
        recipients: Annotated[List[str], "The input is recipients as list"],
        cc: Annotated[List[str], "The input is cc as list"]
        ) -> Annotated[str, "The output is a string"]:
        """Send an email
        Args:
            recipients (list): The recipients as list
            cc (list): The cc in the email as list
        Returns:
            str: Success message
        """        
        # print(f"The content for the email is {content}")
        print(f"The recipients of the email is {recipients}")
        print(f"The cc of the email is {cc}")
        # Code to send the email
        return f"Email sent to successfully"


email = EmailPlugin()
email_plugin = kernel.add_plugin(email, plugin_name="send_email")


settings: OpenAIChatPromptExecutionSettings = kernel.get_prompt_execution_settings_from_service_id(
        service_id=service_id
    )
settings.function_choice_behavior = FunctionChoiceBehavior.Auto(filters={"included_plugins": ["send_email"]})


recipients = ["[email protected]"]
cc = ["[email protected]"]
ask = f"""
Send an email 
to the recipients:
{recipients} with cc: {cc}, 
The recipients, and cc should be used as input.
"""


result1 = await kernel.invoke_prompt(
            function_name="prompt_test1",
            plugin_name="report_test1",
            prompt=ask,
            settings=settings,
        )


d = result1.__dict__
print(d["metadata"]["messages"])

[moonbox3]

Hi @jais001, thanks for your question. There's a simple fix for the issue you're encountering. You'll need to make sure your send_email function includes the self argument in the method definition.

@kernel_function(
            description="Takes recipient as list, cc as list  as input and sends email",
            name="send_email"
    )
    def send_email(
        self,
        recipients: Annotated[List[str], "The input is recipients as list"],
        cc: Annotated[List[str], "The input is cc as list"]
        ) -> Annotated[str, "The output is a string"]:
            # rest of your logic

You're seeing this error because Python is trying to pass the instance of EmailPlugin as an argument (where self should go), but since self is missing, it ends up being treated as an argument for recipients, which causes the conflict. All kernel functions should be valid instance functions.

Once you add the self argument, you will see this output:

The recipients of the email is ['[email protected]']
The cc of the email is ['[email protected]']
The email has been successfully sent to the recipient [email protected] with cc to [email protected].

One other tip: if you only want to see the response you can do:

result1 = await kernel.invoke_prompt(
        function_name="prompt_test1",
        plugin_name="report_test1",
        prompt=ask,
        settings=settings,
    )

    print(result1)

You can get to the chat history of the result by calling result1.metadata['messages']. This will give you the ChatHistory object.

[jais001]

@moonbox3 Thank you for the reply. Iam now able to execute this.