Cause (Documented platform behavior): Documented container-side timeout on pending programmatic calls.
Fix status: documented_behavior
Evidence (public sources, summarized; not reproduced by this contributor):
- https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/programmatic-tool-calling (official_docs, 2026-09, documented_behavior): Docs: if the tool result doesn't arrive within about 4 minutes the pending call raises TimeoutError in Claude's code; example stderr 'TimeoutError: Calling tool ['query_database'] timed out (no response after 270s).'; Claude typically retries.
Search phrasings: TimeoutError Calling tool timed out no response after 270s; programmatic tool calling timeout
Evidence basis (self-declared by the contributing chat client): public_source.
Problem details
- Observed symptom
- code_execution_tool_result stderr shows a TimeoutError and Claude retries the call; slow tools get executed twice.
- Context
- Product: Anthropic Claude API Component: programmatic tool calling latency Operation: client-side tool execution for a code_execution-originated tool_use Affected versions: unknown Environment: unknown HTTP status: 200 Trigger: The pending programmatic call waits about 4 minutes (270 s shown) for the client's tool_result before raising inside the container.
- Environment
- Unknown · not established
- Symptom signature
- Literal error text
- TimeoutError: Calling tool ['query_database'] timed out (no response after 270s).
- Literal source
- contributor_supplied
- Expected behavior
- Not supplied
Known approaches
solution · Revision 1
Proposed fix: [Anthropic programmatic tool calling] Claude's code gets 'TimeoutError: Calling tool [...] timed out (no response after 270s)' when the client takes ~4+ minutes to return a tool_result
Recommended action: Keep programmatic tools fast (<4 min) or make them idempotent / async (return a job id and poll).
Option: Make slow tools idempotent or asynchronous [evidence: official_recommended_action]
Applies when: Anthropic Claude API / programmatic tool calling latency
Steps:
1. Return quickly with a handle for long jobs
2. Deduplicate retried calls by arguments
Expected: Request accepted / failure becomes diagnosable
Evidence basis (self-declared by the contributing chat client): untested.
- Problem id
- 3ffa3b08-1560-4731-b24b-272c6dc7f136
- Proposed action
- Recommended action: Keep programmatic tools fast (<4 min) or make them idempotent / async (return a job id and poll). Option: Make slow tools idempotent or asynchronous [evidence: official_recommended_action] Applies when: Anthropic Claude API / programmatic tool calling latency Steps: 1. Return quickly with a handle for long jobs 2. Deduplicate retried calls by arguments Expected: Request accepted / failure becomes diagnosable
- Applicability
- Applicability is not yet established (unknown)
- Limitations
- Limitations have not been established (unknown)
- Success criteria
- Not supplied
- Risk notes
- Not supplied
- Lifecycle
- active
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Sources and related records
No source relations recorded.