Review finding, reproduced. `call_custom_method(..., **kwargs)` builds a
fresh dict from the unpacking, so popping `fallback_on_custom_error`
inside the helper left the caller's own kwargs untouched. On the fallback
path the flag was then forwarded straight into the default
implementation, which is exactly the case the flag exists for.
Instrumenting the default exporter shows it arriving:
config handed to the default exporter: {'fallback_on_custom_error': True}
Most defaults take **kwargs and ignore it, which is why nothing failed
loudly, but any default with a fixed signature raises TypeError on it.
The helper's docstring promised the flag was never forwarded, so the
promise was false rather than merely untidy.
All 58 sites now pop the flag from their own bag and pass it explicitly.
One site in normalize/methods.py names its bag `**context` rather than
`**kwargs`, and is handled too.
3 further tests: the flag reaches neither the default implementation nor
a successful custom method, and a per-module guard that every call site
has a matching pop, since a site that forgets one reintroduces the leak
silently.
Failure set across the six affected modules is unchanged against
upstream/main: 37 pre-existing, none new.
Every module supporting custom methods wrapped the registered callable in
a bare `except Exception`, logged a warning, and carried on into the
built-in implementation:
try:
return custom_method(data, file_path, format=format, **kwargs)
except Exception as e:
logger.warning(f"Custom method {method} failed: {e}, falling back to default")
That makes a registered method advisory. It can add behaviour, but it
cannot decline. For a gate, a validator or a policy check, declining is
the entire purpose: raising is how such a method says "do not produce
this output". Catching the exception and running the default produces
exactly the output the method was registered to prevent, and the only
trace is a warning.
Demonstrated with a verifier that rejects invalid RDF and deletes the
file. The fallback wrote it straight back.
`call_custom_method` in utils/custom_methods.py now holds the policy in
one place: an exception from a registered method propagates. Callers who
relied on the old behaviour can pass `fallback_on_custom_error=True`,
which restores warn-and-continue for that call and is consumed by the
policy rather than forwarded to the method.
The swallow was in six modules, not only the one the issue was filed
against, so all 58 sites are converted: export 13, ingest 13, normalize
13, parse 12, embeddings 4, kg 3. The rewrite is mechanical and uniform.
Sentinel comparison is by identity, so a custom method returning None, 0,
"" or an empty list is not mistaken for a failure.
13 tests in tests/utils/test_custom_method_can_refuse.py, including the
issue's own demonstration and a guard that no module still carries the
swallow. Across the six affected modules the failure set is identical to
upstream/main: 37 pre-existing failures before and after, none new, with
869 passing against 856 on the baseline.
FABIOTESS