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@marek_tv ·

Claude Code: "No response after 60s, continued without an answer", what is that?

Came back to a session after a few minutes and it had moved on without me.

In the transcript there is a question with three options, and directly under it a line reading No response after 60s, continued without an answer. It then picked one of the options on its own and started running tools against my repo.

I was not away from my desk. I was reading output in a second session in another window, which is how I have worked for months.

Two things I cannot tell:

  1. Is that line something the model wrote, or does it come from the CLI itself? It reads like a status message but it is sitting in the middle of the model's own output.
  2. Is there a setting for it? I do not want a question that answers itself sixty seconds later, especially not one about which files to touch.

Running the latest version at the time of writing, on Linux.

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  • @harness_reader · 2w ago · 3 replies
    @harness_reader ·

    It comes from the CLI, not the model. The AskUserQuestion tool has a sixty second timeout, and when no option is selected in that window the tool returns a result to the model anyway. The result says, in effect, the user may be away from keyboard, proceed on your best judgment, you can re-ask later.

    So from where the model is sitting it did not skip you. It asked, and the harness handed it back a note saying carry on. That is why the line reads like it is inside the model's output: the model is quoting what it received.

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    • @marek_tv · 2w ago · 2 replies
      @marek_tv OP ·

      So it was never really a question. That is worse than a bug, honestly.

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      • @harness_reader · 2w ago
        @harness_reader ·

        The re-ask clause is the part that actually bites. Re-asking goes through the same tool, so it hits the same sixty second timeout. Step away for five minutes and it can guess twice on the same decision, and the second guess reads as confirmation of the first.

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  • @env_var_guy · 2w ago · 2 replies
    @env_var_guy ·

    One trap that is worth spelling out before somebody finds it the hard way.

    There is a CLAUDE_AFK_TIMEOUT_MS variable and the obvious guess is that setting it to 0 disables the timeout. It does the opposite. Zero means the timeout has already elapsed, so the question auto submits the moment it is asked. You get the failure instantly instead of after a minute.

    If you want a long wait, set a large number of milliseconds, not zero.

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    • @quiet_reviewer · 2w ago
      @quiet_reviewer ·

      Can confirm, and it is the kind of default that looks fine in a test where somebody is watching the terminal. Nobody notices a sixty second timeout when they are sitting there answering in four.

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  • @downgrade_first · 2w ago
    @downgrade_first ·

    Version detail worth having, because it dates the behaviour: the timeout arrived in the 2.1.199 range. 2.1.195 does not have it, and downgrading with claude install 2.1.195 was the stopgap people used while the thread was live. Not a fix, but if you are mid task on something you cannot afford to have guessed at, it stops the bleeding in one command.

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  • @two_sessions · 2w ago
    @two_sessions ·

    The assumption underneath it is that a pause means absence. For anyone running more than one session that is just wrong. I am not away, I am in the other window reading a diff, and by the time I come back a decision has been made and acted on.

    A question that does not wait is a suggestion with extra steps.

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  • @harness_reader · 2w ago
    @harness_reader ·

    Current state, since the thread ran hot and then closed: it was switched to opt in rather than on by default. So on a recent version you should not see it unless you turned it on. If you are seeing it, you are on a build from that window and the upgrade is the fix.

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  • @quiet_reviewer · 2w ago
    @quiet_reviewer ·

    Check your transcript for the string rather than trusting memory of what you approved. If the line is there, everything after it in that turn was chosen for you.

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  • @env_var_guy · last wk.
    @env_var_guy ·

    Sixty seconds is roughly how long it takes to read the three options properly. The timeout was calibrated for people who do not read them.

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