test: lazy-load LLM provider clients and add API-key fixtures so the test suite runs cleanly without credentials (#588)

pyproject.toml

@@ -40,3 +40,15 @@ include = ["tradingagents*", "cli*"]
 
 [tool.setuptools.package-data]
 cli = ["static/*"]
+
+[tool.pytest.ini_options]
+testpaths = ["tests"]
+addopts = "-ra --strict-markers"
+markers = [
+    "unit: fast isolated unit tests",
+    "integration: tests requiring external services",
+    "smoke: quick sanity-check tests",
+]
+filterwarnings = [
+    "ignore::DeprecationWarning",
+]

tests/conftest.py

@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+"""Shared pytest fixtures that prevent CI hangs when API keys are absent."""
+
+import os
+from unittest.mock import MagicMock, patch
+
+import pytest
+
+
+def pytest_configure(config):
+    for marker in ("unit", "integration", "smoke"):
+        config.addinivalue_line("markers", f"{marker}: {marker}-level tests")
+
+
+_API_KEY_ENV_VARS = (
+    "OPENAI_API_KEY",
+    "GOOGLE_API_KEY",
+    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY",
+    "XAI_API_KEY",
+    "DEEPSEEK_API_KEY",
+    "DASHSCOPE_API_KEY",
+    "ZHIPU_API_KEY",
+    "OPENROUTER_API_KEY",
+    "AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY",
+    "ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY",
+)
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+def _dummy_api_keys(monkeypatch):
+    for env_var in _API_KEY_ENV_VARS:
+        monkeypatch.setenv(env_var, os.environ.get(env_var, "placeholder"))
+
+
+@pytest.fixture()
+def mock_llm_client():
+    client = MagicMock()
+    client.get_llm.return_value = MagicMock()
+    with patch(
+        "tradingagents.llm_clients.factory.create_llm_client",
+        return_value=client,
+    ):
+        yield client

tests/test_google_api_key.py

@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 import unittest
 from unittest.mock import patch
 
+import pytest
+
 from tradingagents.llm_clients.google_client import GoogleClient
 
 
+@pytest.mark.unit
 class TestGoogleApiKeyStandardization(unittest.TestCase):
     """Verify GoogleClient accepts unified api_key parameter."""
 

tests/test_model_validation.py

@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import unittest
 import warnings
 
+import pytest
+
 from tradingagents.llm_clients.base_client import BaseLLMClient
 from tradingagents.llm_clients.model_catalog import get_known_models
 from tradingagents.llm_clients.validators import validate_model
@@ -19,6 +21,7 @@ class DummyLLMClient(BaseLLMClient):
         return validate_model(self.provider, self.model)
 
 
+@pytest.mark.unit
 class ModelValidationTests(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_cli_catalog_models_are_all_validator_approved(self):
         for provider, models in get_known_models().items():

tests/test_ticker_symbol_handling.py

@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 import unittest
 
+import pytest
+
 from cli.utils import normalize_ticker_symbol
 from tradingagents.agents.utils.agent_utils import build_instrument_context
 
 
+@pytest.mark.unit
 class TickerSymbolHandlingTests(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_normalize_ticker_symbol_preserves_exchange_suffix(self):
         self.assertEqual(normalize_ticker_symbol(" cnc.to "), "CNC.TO")

tradingagents/llm_clients/factory.py

@@ -1,10 +1,6 @@
 from typing import Optional
 
 from .base_client import BaseLLMClient
-from .openai_client import OpenAIClient
-from .anthropic_client import AnthropicClient
-from .google_client import GoogleClient
-from .azure_client import AzureOpenAIClient
 
 # Providers that use the OpenAI-compatible chat completions API
 _OPENAI_COMPATIBLE = (
@@ -20,6 +16,10 @@ def create_llm_client(
 ) -> BaseLLMClient:
     """Create an LLM client for the specified provider.
 
+    Provider modules are imported lazily so that simply importing this
+    factory (e.g. during test collection) does not pull in heavy LLM SDKs
+    or fail when their API keys are absent.
+
     Args:
         provider: LLM provider name
         model: Model name/identifier
@@ -35,15 +35,19 @@ def create_llm_client(
     provider_lower = provider.lower()
 
     if provider_lower in _OPENAI_COMPATIBLE:
+        from .openai_client import OpenAIClient
         return OpenAIClient(model, base_url, provider=provider_lower, **kwargs)
 
     if provider_lower == "anthropic":
+        from .anthropic_client import AnthropicClient
         return AnthropicClient(model, base_url, **kwargs)
 
     if provider_lower == "google":
+        from .google_client import GoogleClient
         return GoogleClient(model, base_url, **kwargs)
 
     if provider_lower == "azure":
+        from .azure_client import AzureOpenAIClient
         return AzureOpenAIClient(model, base_url, **kwargs)
 
     raise ValueError(f"Unsupported LLM provider: {provider}")