From facd8efbff156e8722545cc8837114f4580715b6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?David=20M=C3=BCller-Widmann?=
 <devmotion@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2026 00:04:07 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Use `NoTangent` instead of `nothing` in `@grad`

`nothing` returned by a `@grad` pullback is converted to `NoTangent()`,
so only ChainRulesCore tangent types reach `_add_to_deriv!`. The `fill`
rule returns `NoTangent()` directly.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 src/ReverseDiff.jl        |  2 +-
 src/derivatives/arrays.jl |  2 +-
 src/macros.jl             | 14 +++++++++++---
 test/ChainRulesTests.jl   | 15 +++++++++++++++
 4 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/ReverseDiff.jl b/src/ReverseDiff.jl
index 3f1ed799..be999233 100644
--- a/src/ReverseDiff.jl
+++ b/src/ReverseDiff.jl
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 module ReverseDiff
 
 using Base: RefValue
-using ChainRulesCore: ChainRulesCore, AbstractThunk, AbstractZero, unthunk
+using ChainRulesCore: ChainRulesCore, AbstractThunk, AbstractZero, NoTangent, unthunk
 using DiffResults: DiffResults, DiffResult
 using DiffRules: DiffRules
 using ForwardDiff: ForwardDiff, Dual
diff --git a/src/derivatives/arrays.jl b/src/derivatives/arrays.jl
index b717ff85..a542004f 100644
--- a/src/derivatives/arrays.jl
+++ b/src/derivatives/arrays.jl
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ end
 @grad function fill(v::Real, dims...)
     function back(Δ)
         size(Δ) ≢ dims && error("Dimension mismatch")
-        return (sum(Δ), map(_ -> nothing, dims)...)
+        return (sum(Δ), map(_ -> NoTangent(), dims)...)
     end
     return fill(value(v), dims...), back
 end
diff --git a/src/macros.jl b/src/macros.jl
index 64c65372..a6d1425b 100644
--- a/src/macros.jl
+++ b/src/macros.jl
@@ -176,6 +176,9 @@ skipvalue(x::AbstractArray{<:TrackedReal}) = skipvalue(value(x))
         return dot(xv, xv), Δ -> (Δ * 2 * xv,)
     end
 The `@grad` macro provides a way for the users to define custom adjoints for single-output functions wrt to their input numbers or arrays.
+
+The pullback returns a tuple with one tangent per positional argument: a number or an array, a
+thunk, `ChainRulesCore.NoTangent()` or `ChainRulesCore.ZeroTangent()`.
 """
 macro grad(expr)
     d = MacroTools.isdef(expr) ? MacroTools.splitdef(expr) : nothing
@@ -231,8 +234,9 @@ macro grad(expr)
                 output = instruction.output
                 input = instruction.input
                 back = instruction.cache[1]
-                input_derivs = back($ReverseDiff.deriv(output))
-                $ReverseDiff._check_tangents($f, input_derivs, length(input))
+                back_output = back($ReverseDiff.deriv(output))
+                $ReverseDiff._check_tangents($f, back_output, length(input))
+                input_derivs = map($ReverseDiff._totangent, back_output)
                 $ReverseDiff._add_to_deriv!.(input, input_derivs)
                 $ReverseDiff.unseed!(output)
                 return nothing
@@ -426,8 +430,12 @@ function _check_tangents(f, tangents, n)
     end
 end
 
+# `@grad` pullbacks may use `nothing`, like in Tracker
+_totangent(x) = x
+_totangent(::Nothing) = NoTangent()
+
 _add_to_deriv!(d1, d2) = nothing
-_add_to_deriv!(d1::Union{TrackedReal, AbstractArray}, ::Union{AbstractZero, Nothing}) = nothing
+_add_to_deriv!(d1::Union{TrackedReal, AbstractArray}, ::AbstractZero) = nothing
 function _add_to_deriv!(d1::Union{TrackedReal, AbstractArray}, d2::AbstractThunk)
     istracked(d1) && increment_deriv!(d1, unthunk(d2))
     return nothing
diff --git a/test/ChainRulesTests.jl b/test/ChainRulesTests.jl
index 633a3218..088cccc1 100644
--- a/test/ChainRulesTests.jl
+++ b/test/ChainRulesTests.jl
@@ -372,6 +372,16 @@ ReverseDiff.@grad function k_zero(x, y)
     return sum(4xv) + sum(4yv), pb_k_zero
 end
 
+l_zero(x, y) = sum(4x) + sum(4y)
+function l_zero(x::ReverseDiff.TrackedArray, y::ReverseDiff.TrackedArray)
+    return ReverseDiff.track(l_zero, x, y)
+end
+ReverseDiff.@grad function l_zero(x, y)
+    xv, yv = ReverseDiff.value(x), ReverseDiff.value(y)
+    pb_l_zero(Δ) = (fill(3 * Δ, size(xv)), NoTangent())
+    return sum(4xv) + sum(4yv), pb_l_zero
+end
+
 h_zero_vec(z) = h_zero(z[1], z[2])
 
 @testset "zero tangents for tracked arguments" begin
@@ -388,6 +398,11 @@ h_zero_vec(z) = h_zero(z[1], z[2])
     results = ReverseDiff.gradient(k_zero, (x, y))
     @test results[1] == fill(3, size(x))
     @test results[2] == zeros(size(y))
+
+    # `NoTangent()` from a `@grad` pullback
+    results = ReverseDiff.gradient(l_zero, (x, y))
+    @test results[1] == fill(3, size(x))
+    @test results[2] == zeros(size(y))
 end
 
 ### `where` clauses in the imported signature