diff --git a/tests/test-chat-handler.cpp b/tests/test-chat-handler.cpp
index f28784ccb..cccc98db8 100644
--- a/tests/test-chat-handler.cpp
+++ b/tests/test-chat-handler.cpp
@@ -298,34 +298,6 @@ const json tools = {special_function_tool, python_tool};
 //       json::array({special_function_call}));
 // }
 
-static void test_format_detection() {
-    common_chat_params no_tools_params;
-    no_tools_params.messages = {{{"role", "user"}, {"content", "Hey"}}};
-
-    common_chat_params tools_params = no_tools_params;
-    tools_params.tools = json::array();
-
-    auto describe = [](const std::string & template_file, const common_chat_params & params) {
-      const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file(template_file), "<s>", "</s>");
-      auto data = common_chat_init(tmpl, params);
-      return data.format;
-    };
-
-    assert_equals(std::string("functionary v3.1 llama 3.1 tool calls"), describe("tests/chat/templates/meetkai-functionary-medium-v3.1.jinja", tools_params));
-    assert_equals(std::string("functionary v3.2 tool calls"),           describe("tests/chat/templates/meetkai-functionary-medium-v3.2.jinja", tools_params));
-    assert_equals(std::string("firefunction v2 tool calls"),            describe("tests/chat/templates/fireworks-ai-llama-3-firefunction-v2.jinja", tools_params));
-    assert_equals(std::string("llama 3.1 tool calls"),                  describe("tests/chat/templates/meta-llama-Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct.jinja", tools_params));
-    assert_equals(std::string("llama 3.2 tool calls"),                  describe("tests/chat/templates/meta-llama-Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct.jinja", tools_params));
-    assert_equals(std::string("hermes 2 pro tool calls"),               describe("tests/chat/templates/Qwen-Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct.jinja", tools_params));
-    assert_equals(std::string("hermes 2 pro tool calls"),               describe("tests/chat/templates/NousResearch-Hermes-2-Pro-Llama-3-8B-tool_use.jinja", tools_params));
-    assert_equals(std::string("hermes 2 pro tool calls"),               describe("tests/chat/templates/NousResearch-Hermes-3-Llama-3.1-8B-tool_use.jinja", tools_params));
-    assert_equals(std::string("mistral nemo tool calls"),               describe("tests/chat/templates/mistralai-Mistral-Nemo-Instruct-2407.jinja", tools_params));
-    assert_equals(std::string("deepseek r1 tool calls"),                describe("tests/chat/templates/deepseek-ai-DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B.jinja", tools_params));
-    assert_equals(std::string("generic tool calls"),                    describe("tests/chat/templates/google-gemma-7b-it.jinja", tools_params));
-    assert_equals(std::string("content-only"),                          describe("tests/chat/templates/google-gemma-7b-it.jinja", no_tools_params));
-    // assert_equals(std::string("command_r_plus tool calls"),             describe("tests/chat/templates/CohereForAI-c4ai-command-r-plus-tool_use.jinja_, tools_params));
-}
-
 static std::string get_message_prompt_delta(const common_chat_template & tmpl, const std::vector<std::string> & end_tokens, const json & user_message, const json & delta_message, const json & tools) {
   fprintf(stderr, "Template source: %s\n", tmpl.source().c_str());
   fprintf(stderr, "Delta message: %s\n", delta_message.dump(2).c_str());
@@ -363,20 +335,23 @@ static std::string get_message_prompt_delta(const common_chat_template & tmpl, c
   return delta;
 }
 
-static void test_template(const common_chat_template & tmpl, const std::vector<std::string> & end_tokens, const json & tool_calling_message, const json & tools, bool skip_grammar_test = false) {
+static void test_template(const common_chat_template & tmpl, const std::vector<std::string> & end_tokens, const json & test_message, const json & tools = {}, bool skip_grammar_test = false) {
   // auto tool_call_style = common_tool_call_style_detect(tmpl);
   common_chat_msg expected_msg {
     "assistant",
     "",
     {},
   };
-  for (const auto & tc : tool_calling_message.at("tool_calls")) {
-    const auto & arguments = tc.at("function").at("arguments");
-    expected_msg.tool_calls.push_back({
-      tc.at("function").at("name").get<std::string>(),
-      arguments.is_string() ? arguments.get<std::string>() : arguments.dump(),
-      tc.contains("id") ? tc.at("id").get<std::string>() : "",
-    });
+  auto has_tool_calls = test_message.contains("tool_calls");
+  if (has_tool_calls) {
+    for (const auto & tc : test_message.at("tool_calls")) {
+      const auto & arguments = tc.at("function").at("arguments");
+      expected_msg.tool_calls.push_back({
+        tc.at("function").at("name").get<std::string>(),
+        arguments.is_string() ? arguments.get<std::string>() : arguments.dump(),
+        tc.contains("id") ? tc.at("id").get<std::string>() : "",
+      });
+    }
   }
 
   // Format the message: apply the template to 1 user message w/ add_generation_prompt=true, then w/ the extra message w/ add_generation_prompt=false,
@@ -386,36 +361,45 @@ static void test_template(const common_chat_template & tmpl, const std::vector<s
       {"content", "Hello, world!"}
   };
 
-  common_chat_params params;
-  params.parallel_tool_calls = true;
-  params.messages = json {user_message, tool_calling_message};
-  params.tools = tools;
-  auto chat_data = common_chat_init(tmpl, params);
-  fprintf(stderr, "PROMPT: %s\n", chat_data.prompt.get<std::string>().c_str());
-  auto grammar = build_grammar(chat_data.grammar);
-  if (!grammar) {
-    throw std::runtime_error("Failed to build grammar");
-  }
+  for (const auto & tool_choice : json({"auto", "required"})) {
+    common_chat_params params;
+    params.tool_choice = tool_choice;
+    params.parallel_tool_calls = true;
+    params.messages = json {user_message, test_message};
+    params.tools = tools;
+    auto chat_data = common_chat_init(tmpl, params);
+    // fprintf(stderr, "PROMPT: %s\n", chat_data.prompt.get<std::string>().c_str());
+    if (has_tool_calls) {
+      auto grammar = build_grammar(chat_data.grammar);
+      if (!grammar) {
+        throw std::runtime_error("Failed to build grammar");
+      }
 
-  if (!skip_grammar_test) {
-    auto full_delta = get_message_prompt_delta(tmpl, end_tokens, user_message, tool_calling_message, tools);
-    std::cout << "Full delta:\n```\n" << full_delta << "\n```" << std::endl;
+      if (!skip_grammar_test) {
+        auto full_delta = get_message_prompt_delta(tmpl, end_tokens, user_message, test_message, tools);
+        std::cout << "Full delta:\n```\n" << full_delta << "\n```" << std::endl;
 
-    const auto msg = chat_data.parser->parse_final(full_delta);
-    assert_msg_equals(expected_msg, msg);
+        const auto msg = chat_data.parser->parse_final(full_delta);
+        assert_msg_equals(expected_msg, msg);
 
-    auto content_less_delta = get_message_prompt_delta(tmpl, end_tokens, user_message, {
-      {"role", "assistant"},
-      {"content", {}},
-      {"tool_calls", tool_calling_message.at("tool_calls")}
-    }, tools);
-    if (!match_string(content_less_delta, grammar.get())) {
-      throw std::runtime_error("Failed to match content-less delta against grammar:\n\nContent-less delta: " + content_less_delta + "\n\nGrammar: " + chat_data.grammar);
+        auto content_less_delta = get_message_prompt_delta(tmpl, end_tokens, user_message, {
+          {"role", "assistant"},
+          {"content", {}},
+          {"tool_calls", test_message.at("tool_calls")}
+        }, tools);
+        if (!match_string(content_less_delta, grammar.get())) {
+          throw std::runtime_error("Failed to match content-less delta against grammar:\n\nContent-less delta: " + content_less_delta + "\n\nGrammar: " + chat_data.grammar);
+        }
+      }
     }
   }
 }
 
 static void test_grammars() {
+  auto text_message = json {
+    {"role", "assistant"},
+    {"content", "Hello, world!"},
+  };
   auto tool_call_message = json {
     {"role", "assistant"},
     {"content", {}},
@@ -444,68 +428,128 @@ static void test_grammars() {
     }}}
   };
 
-  {
-    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/mistralai-Mistral-Nemo-Instruct-2407.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "</s>" }, tool_call_message_with_id, tools, /* skip_grammar_test= */ true);
-  }
-  {
-    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/Qwen-Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    // assert_equals(tmpl.requires_object_arguments_, true);
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<|im_end|>" }, tool_call_message, tools);
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<|im_end|>" }, python_tool_call_message, tools);
-  }
-  {
-    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/NousResearch-Hermes-2-Pro-Llama-3-8B-tool_use.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<|im_end|>" }, tool_call_message, tools);
-  }
-  {
-    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/NousResearch-Hermes-3-Llama-3.1-8B-tool_use.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<|im_end|>" }, tool_call_message, tools);
-  }
-  {
-    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/meta-llama-Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<|eom_id|>", "<|eot_id|>" }, tool_call_message, tools);
-  }
-  {
-    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/meta-llama-Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<|eom_id|>", "<|eot_id|>" }, python_tool_call_message, tools);
-  }
-  {
-    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/meta-llama-Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<|eom_id|>", "<|eot_id|>" }, tool_call_message, tools);
-  }
-  {
-    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/meta-llama-Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<|eom_id|>", "<|eot_id|>" }, tool_call_message, tools);
-  }
-  {
-    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/meetkai-functionary-medium-v3.1.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<|eom_id|>", "<|eot_id|>" }, tool_call_message, tools);
-  }
-  {
-    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/meetkai-functionary-medium-v3.2.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<|eom_id|>", "<|eot_id|>" }, tool_call_message, tools);
-  }
-  {
-    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/fireworks-ai-llama-3-firefunction-v2.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<|eot_id|>" }, tool_call_message, tools);
-  }
+
+  common_chat_params no_tools_params;
+  no_tools_params.messages = {{{"role", "user"}, {"content", "Hey"}}};
+
+  common_chat_params tools_params = no_tools_params;
+  tools_params.tools = json::array();
+
+  auto describe = [](const common_chat_template & tmpl, const common_chat_params & params) {
+    auto data = common_chat_init(tmpl, params);
+    return data.format;
+  };
+
   {
     const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/google-gemma-2-2b-it.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<end_of_turn>" }, tool_call_message_with_id, tools);
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "<end_of_turn>" };
+
+    assert_equals(std::string("generic tool calls"), describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    assert_equals(std::string("content-only"), describe(tmpl, no_tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message_with_id, tools);
   }
   {
     const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/microsoft-Phi-3.5-mini-instruct.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<|end|>" }, tool_call_message_with_id, tools);
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "<|end|>" };
+
+    assert_equals(std::string("generic tool calls"), describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message_with_id, tools);
+  }
+  {
+    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/mistralai-Mistral-Nemo-Instruct-2407.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "</s>" };
+
+    assert_equals(std::string("mistral nemo tool calls"), describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message_with_id, tools, /* skip_grammar_test= */ true);
+  }
+  {
+    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/Qwen-Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "<|im_end|>" };
+
+    assert_equals(std::string("hermes 2 pro tool calls"), describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, python_tool_call_message, tools);
+  }
+  {
+    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/NousResearch-Hermes-2-Pro-Llama-3-8B-tool_use.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "<|im_end|>" };
+
+    assert_equals(std::string("hermes 2 pro tool calls"), describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message, tools);
+  }
+  {
+    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/NousResearch-Hermes-3-Llama-3.1-8B-tool_use.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "<|im_end|>" };
+
+    assert_equals(std::string("hermes 2 pro tool calls"), describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message, tools);
+  }
+  {
+    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/meta-llama-Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "<|eom_id|>", "<|eot_id|>" };
+
+    assert_equals(std::string("llama 3.1 tool calls"), describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, python_tool_call_message, tools);
+  }
+  {
+    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/meta-llama-Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "<|eom_id|>", "<|eot_id|>" };
+    
+    assert_equals(std::string("llama 3.2 tool calls"), describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message, tools);
+  }
+  {
+    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/meta-llama-Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "<|eom_id|>", "<|eot_id|>" };
+
+    assert_equals(std::string("llama 3.1 tool calls"), describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message, tools);
+  }
+  {
+    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/meetkai-functionary-medium-v3.1.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "<|eom_id|>", "<|eot_id|>" };
+
+    assert_equals(std::string("functionary v3.1 llama 3.1 tool calls"), describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message, tools);
+  }
+  {
+    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/meetkai-functionary-medium-v3.2.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "<|eom_id|>", "<|eot_id|>" };
+
+    assert_equals(std::string("functionary v3.2 tool calls"),           describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message, tools);
+  }
+  {
+    const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/fireworks-ai-llama-3-firefunction-v2.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "<|eot_id|>" };
+
+    assert_equals(std::string("firefunction v2 tool calls"), describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message, tools);
   }
   {
     const common_chat_template tmpl(read_file("tests/chat/templates/deepseek-ai-DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B.jinja"), "<s>", "</s>");
-    test_template(tmpl, { "<｜end▁of▁sentence｜>" }, tool_call_message, tools);
+    std::vector<std::string> end_tokens { "<｜end▁of▁sentence｜>" };
+
+    assert_equals(std::string("deepseek r1 tool calls"), describe(tmpl, tools_params));
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, text_message, tools);
+    test_template(tmpl, end_tokens, tool_call_message, tools);
   }
 }
 
 int main() {
-    test_format_detection();
     // test_parsing();
     test_grammars();