Summary

OpenAI Responses reasoning turns can error with:

400 Item 'rs_…' of type 'reasoning' was provided without its required following item.

This happens after enabling reasoning/thinking for openai/gpt-5.2 and then sending a normal message (or /status) in WhatsApp sessions. Clearing session history fixes it temporarily.

Environment

• Clawdbot version: 2026.1.16-2 (Homebrew global install)
• OS: macOS
• Provider: OpenAI
• Model: openai/gpt-5.2
• API mode: openai-responses
• Channel: WhatsApp

Config (sanitized)

{
  "models": {
    "providers": {
      "openai": {
        "baseUrl": "https://api.openai.com/v1",
        "api": "openai-responses",
        "models": [
          {
            "id": "gpt-5.2",
            "reasoning": true
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": { "primary": "openai/gpt-5.2" },
      "thinkingDefault": "off"
    }
  }
}

Repro steps

1. Configure OpenAI provider as above (openai-responses, gpt-5.2, reasoning true).
2. Start a WhatsApp session.
3. Set thinking to high (e.g. clawdbot agent --to <number> --thinking high ...).
4. Send a normal message (or /status).

Result

400 error from OpenAI Responses:

400 Item 'rs_…' of type 'reasoning' was provided without its required following item.

Expected

Normal response (or status reply) without an error.

Notes

• Clearing session history (~/.clawdbot/agents/main/sessions/*.jsonl and sessions.json) and restarting gateway resolves it temporarily until reasoning is used again.
• Error appears to be linked to replaying reasoning items in session history for tool-only / status-like turns.

Relevant log excerpts

From ~/.clawdbot/agents/main/sessions/<session>.jsonl (trimmed):

... "thinkingSignature":{"id":"rs_091acb...","type":"reasoning", ... }
... errorMessage:"400 Item 'rs_091acb...' of type 'reasoning' was provided without its required following item."

If you want, I can provide the full JSONL and gateway logs privately.