use proper state loading condition

[kylerohn-msft]

fixes #440 using same design pattern as Agents-for-net

This pull request refactors the state loading logic in the agent state management code to improve cache handling and test clarity. The main changes introduce a helper method to determine when state should be loaded from storage, and update tests to use the new cache access pattern.

Agent state loading improvements:

• Added a private _should_load method to encapsulate the logic for when the agent state should be loaded from storage, improving readability and maintainability. The load method now uses this helper instead of directly checking the cache.

Testing enhancements:

• Updated the test for cached state hash computation to explicitly retrieve the cached state using the get_cached_state method after update, ensuring tests reflect the current cache access pattern.

Also removes a module which misuses the state loading/saving design pattern, and tests which should have already been deleted

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR refactors AgentState.load() to centralize the “should we read from storage?” decision into a new _should_load() helper, with the goal of preventing unnecessary storage reads and aligning the caching pattern with the .NET SDK (per issue #440).

Changes:

• Replaced the inline load() guard (force or not self._cached_state) with a new _should_load() helper.
• Updated the load condition to consult the turn-scoped cached state (turn_context.turn_state) and to additionally consider “empty cached state”.

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Comments suppressed due to low confidence (2)

dev/hosting_dialogs/memory/scopes/test_memory_scopes.py:216

• Calling ConversationState.save() here is a no-op because the state has not been loaded/initialized yet (AgentState._cached_state is still None). If the intent is to ensure the ConversationState cache exists for this turn, call load() instead.
  dev/hosting_dialogs/memory/scopes/test_memory_scopes.py:288
• Calling ConversationState.save() here is a no-op because the state has not been loaded/initialized yet (AgentState._cached_state is still None). If the intent is to ensure the ConversationState cache exists for this turn, call load() instead.

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Copilot reviewed 41 out of 45 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

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Copilot reviewed 41 out of 45 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

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libraries/microsoft-agents-hosting-core/microsoft_agents/hosting/core/state/agent_state.py:269

• delete_value() checks self._cached_state.state.get(property_name) before deleting. This fails to delete keys whose stored value is falsy (e.g., False/0/empty string), even though the property exists. Use membership (property_name in ...) instead of truthiness.

        if not property_name:
            raise TypeError(
                "AgentState.delete_value(): property_name cannot be None or empty."
            )

        if self._cached_state.state.get(property_name):
            del self._cached_state.state[property_name]

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libraries/microsoft-agents-hosting-core/microsoft_agents/hosting/core/state/agent_state.py:269

• delete_value() uses self._cached_state.state.get(property_name) as the existence check. That fails to delete entries whose stored value is falsey (e.g., 0, "", False), leaving the key in state unexpectedly.

                "AgentState.delete_value(): property_name cannot be None or empty."
            )

        if self._cached_state.state.get(property_name):
            del self._cached_state.state[property_name]

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libraries/microsoft-agents-hosting-dialogs/microsoft_agents/hosting/dialogs/dialog_manager.py:93

• on_turn() now skips resolving ConversationState from context.turn_state, but still unconditionally uses self.conversation_state immediately after. If conversation_state was not configured, this will raise an AttributeError at create_property(). Fail fast with a clear error (or restore a resolution mechanism) before using conversation_state.

        if self.conversation_state is not None:
            await self.conversation_state.load(context, False)
            if self.user_state is not None:
                await self.user_state.load(context, False)

        # Create property accessors
        last_access_property = self.conversation_state.create_property(self.last_access)
        last_access: datetime = cast(

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