My agent stopped responding
How to tell a busy agent from a stuck one, and how to get a stuck reply going again without losing the conversation.
An agent that has gone quiet is usually still working. A small line under the reply tells you which, and when one really is stuck, one click gets it going again with the conversation intact.
Is it working or stuck?#
While a Claude session writes its reply, a line under it names the step it is on, with a running clock:
Waiting for Claude: the request is on its way.
Thinking: the model is reasoning. Long thinking is normal on hard tasks.
Writing: the reply is coming in.
Running and a tool's name: the agent is using a tool, such as running a command.
Connection trouble, retrying, with a reason (for example "Anthropic is overloaded"): Yardmaster is retrying for you.
None of these needs you. Let the clock run.
It says "Not responding"#
When a session has been completely silent for two minutes, Yardmaster sends it a free "are you still there?" check. If two checks in a row go unanswered, the line turns red and reads Not responding, with a Restart button.
Click Restart on the red line.
Yardmaster stops the stuck step and carries on the same reply. Your conversation stays as it was.
This check is on at first. With it off, a stuck session just sits quietly.
The reply stopped halfway#
Sometimes Claude Code drops a reply part way through. The session shows an orange Paused dot, and Yardmaster repairs it by itself: within about a minute it sends your last message again.
To try straight away, click the small Retry button just above the message box.
Yardmaster retries a session this quick way at most twice a day. After that, the dot turns red: Recovery failed, and slower retries take over; see It says "Recovery failed".
It says "Recovery failed"#
The quick retries ran out. Click Retry above the message box to try again now, or send the session a message. Either one starts it fresh from your conversation.
A sign-in stopped working#
If one of your Claude accounts needs signing in again, Yardmaster stops using it, moves the sessions that were on it to another account, and asks you to sign in. When no account is left with room, those sessions show Recovery failed until you sign in again or a limit resets. See Connect your Claude account.
Still stuck?#
Send the session a message. Any message restarts it from the conversation.
Quit and reopen Yardmaster. Sessions that were working come back on their own; see Sessions come back after a crash or restart.
Tell the team with the bug icon; see Report a problem or ask for help.
Checks only apply to Claude sessions that are in the middle of a reply. Each check is tiny and costs nothing.
When auto-continue is on, a "Not responding" session keeps showing as running, so auto-continue can still restart it while you are away.
"Stalled?" is a different label: a session produced no output for a long while. Send it a message, or click Restart if the red line is showing.
The daily limit of two automatic retries resets when you send the session a message yourself.