Skip to content

[FEATURE] Reconsider: make AskUserQuestion's 60s timeout configurable (follow-up to #30740) #73442

Description

@AxeloLabs

Preflight Checklist

  • I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
  • This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Follow-up to #30740, which was closed as "not planned" and locked, so I can't
comment there. Re-raising with a concrete use case, asking only for a
configurable timeout (keep 60s as default).

Where the hard 60s auto-close actively hurts:
I use AskUserQuestion for architecture / design decisions — exactly the
questions a human should take time to think about (e.g. "which binary should
this launcher use on macOS vs Linux?", "make this config OS-agnostic or keep it
platform-specific?").

With the current fixed 60s:

  • The clickable widget disappears before I've finished reading the options,
    so I lose the keyboard-selectable UI and must fall back to free-text answers.
  • The agent receives "No response after 60s — proceed using your best
    judgment"
    , indistinguishable from an intentional skip. A careful agent then
    re-posts the question, which times out again — an effectively infinite 60s
    loop whenever I step away or simply read slowly.
  • For irreversible/architectural choices, "proceed using your best judgment" is
    precisely the wrong fallback.

Requested (in order of preference):

  1. Configurable timeout via settings.json, e.g. "askUserQuestionTimeoutMs": null to wait indefinitely, or a number to extend it.
  2. A distinct signal for "timed out" vs "user intentionally gave no answer",
    so the agent can keep waiting instead of acting.

Default stays 60s — this only lets users who need longer deliberation opt out.
Today there is no local workaround (no setting, env var, or flag).

Proposed Solution

add a timer or cancel this behavior

Alternative Solutions

No response

Priority

Critical - Blocking my work

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

No response

Additional Context

No response

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    area:tuiduplicateThis issue or pull request already existsenhancementNew feature or request

    Type

    No type

    Fields

    No fields configured for issues without a type.

    Projects

    No projects

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions