AgentFixboard
Fixed (verified)Last checked CrewAI#state#tool-calls

A second hierarchical kickoff raises 'Manager agent should not have tools'

A hierarchical crew works on its first kickoff(). The second kickoff() on the same crew raises Exception: Manager agent should not have tools when the crew was built with manager_llm.

From GitHub

crewAIInc/crewAI

IssuePull request

Difficulty
Easy
Time
~5 min
Steps
2
Fixed in
1.15.29
Last checked

Verified fix: PR #8369 merged on . Fixed in 1.15.29 (first published release whose tag contains the merge commit). Last checked .

Symptom

A hierarchical crew works on its first kickoff(). The second kickoff() on the same crew raises Exception: Manager agent should not have tools when the crew was built with manager_llm.

Evidence what you'll see

  • The report's scripted two-run crew prints 1 hello worker calls: 1, then raises Exception: Manager agent should not have tools on run 2.
  • With manager_agent instead, both runs return, but run 2 lists only the manager as a coworker and the worker is never called again.
  • The same reuse shows up in akickoff(), copy().kickoff() after a run, kickoff_for_each() after a run, and train(n_iterations > 1).

Why it happens

The first run stores the manager, with its delegation tools, on the crew. The next run sees those tools and rejects the manager. With manager_agent, the first run leaves the manager on the task, so the next run treats the manager as the only coworker. Pull request 8369 allows the crew's own delegation tools and skips treating the leftover manager as the task worker.

Affected versions

crewAI 1.15.28 (main at a8877f0cd), Python 3.12 and 3.13, macOS 26. crewAI Tools is not used in the repro.

Fix steps

0 of 2 done

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How to check it worked

  • Running crew.kickoff() twice on the report's hierarchical crew returns on both runs and does not raise Exception: Manager agent should not have tools. The worker is called on each run.

If it still fails

  • Tag 1.15.28 does not contain pull request 8369.
  • A manager_agent given tools that are not the crew's delegation tools still raises Exception: Manager agent should not have tools. The pull request keeps that check.

Sources and credit

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