Experiencing difficulties with your Claude AI agent? Many users have reported encountering issues that, while not always explicitly labeled as “internal server errors,” manifest in ways that suggest underlying service disruptions. One such problem involves Claude agents, particularly the Sonnet model, suddenly losing their ability to effectively search knowledge bases and execute function calls. This can be a significant roadblock for those relying on Claude for tasks requiring data retrieval or tool utilization.
One user detailed a frustrating experience where their previously well-functioning Sonnet agent abruptly ceased to operate correctly. The agent, designed to look up device IP addresses and management credentials from a knowledge base, began failing with the persistent error message: “The function call format is incorrect.” This issue arose despite no changes to permissions, policies, or prompts, which were all set to default configurations. Interestingly, switching to alternative models like Titan Text G1 and Haiku proved successful, highlighting a problem specific to Sonnet. Further troubleshooting steps, including recreating data sources and knowledge bases in different regions, yielded no improvement, suggesting the issue was not related to user-specific configurations or regional outages.
The user’s attempts to interact with the knowledge base repeatedly resulted in the same error, as illustrated in the conversation trace. The agent, instead of performing the knowledge base search, responded with the error message, indicating a breakdown in the expected function call process. This behavior persisted across multiple attempts, forcing the user to abandon the automated knowledge base lookup and resort to manual information retrieval.
While the error message points to a formatting issue, the consistency of the problem and the failure across different setups suggest a potential internal server-side problem impacting Claude’s ability to process function calls correctly, especially within the Sonnet model. This could be interpreted as a form of “internal server error” where the backend service is failing to interpret or execute requests properly, even if it doesn’t return a standard HTTP 500 error code.
For users facing similar issues, it’s recommended to:
- Verify Claude Service Status: Check for any reported outages or disruptions on Anthropic’s status page or community forums.
- Test with Different Models: As demonstrated, trying alternative Claude models or other AI agents can help isolate whether the problem is model-specific.
- Review Function Call Syntax: Double-check the function call format against the expected documentation, although in this case, the user confirmed default prompts were used.
- Simplify the Request: Attempt a simpler knowledge base query or function call to see if the issue persists with basic operations.
- Contact Support: If the problem remains unresolved, reaching out to Anthropic’s support channels is advisable to report the potential service issue.
In conclusion, while the error message presented is “incorrect function call format,” the broader context and troubleshooting steps point towards a possible underlying “internal server error” within the Claude service, particularly affecting the Sonnet model’s ability to interact with knowledge bases and execute functions reliably. Monitoring service status and systematic testing are crucial steps in diagnosing and potentially resolving these types of issues.
