[juliusmarminge]

Problem

A message typed while a Claude tool approval is pending declines the approval, with the text as feedback (runtime-request.respond, decision: "decline"). The Claude adapter passed those words through as the whole deny message, so Claude got {"type":"tool_result","content":"<the user's text>","is_error":true}. Nothing told it the user had declined the call or that the text was the user's. Reproduced on main (1854e14d09) in the web dev server. Claude read "Seems a Pi agent is waiting for approval." as an error from a separate Pi agent. In a second run it treated "By the way, I'm stepping away for a minute." as a failed command and retried the declined command.

Change

permissionResultFromDecision in ClaudeAdapterV2.ts now labels non-empty decline feedback as The user declined this tool call and said:\n<feedback>. The no-feedback messages, decisionClassification, and the cancel interrupt are unchanged. Claude is the only adapter that offers approval feedback (supportsFeedback), so other providers are unaffected.

Scope and approval

Fixes #27854

Verification

• Red first: tells Claude that decline feedback is the user's message, not a tool error in apps/server/src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/ClaudeAdapterV2.test.ts fails on main (1817aaaada): feedback was forwarded as a bare tool error. It passes with the fix.
• vp test run src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/ClaudeAdapterV2.test.ts src/orchestration-v2/Orchestrator.control-reads.test.ts: 290 passed. vp run check:changed after merging main (1f9b677a5c): format, lint, knip, typecheck and 277 tests passed.
• Live runtime check: web dev server (T3CODE_DEV_SEED=0 vp run dev, fresh database), Claude provider, a scratch git repo. The agent was asked to run a Bash command. While the approval was pending, a chat message was typed in the composer and sent without clicking Approve or Decline. Below is what Claude received, trimmed from the Claude CLI session log. This is a server-only fix with no visible change, so there is no capture matrix.

	Before (1854e14d09)	After (50770a54f1)
Variant 1: Opus 5.5, Full access, PreToolUse hook answering ask for Bash	{"content": "Seems a Pi agent is waiting for approval.", "is_error": true} → "That message comes from the tool layer, not the shell. It looks like a separate "Pi" agent session is waiting on an approval prompt…"	{"content": "The user declined this tool call and said:\nSeems a Pi agent is waiting for approval.", "is_error": true} → "The command was declined, with the note "Seems a Pi agent is waiting for approval." I didn't retry it."
Variant 2: Sonnet 5.5, Supervised, no hook	{"content": "By the way, I'm stepping away for a minute.", "is_error": true} → "The Bash call returned an error…", then reruns the declined touch notes.txt	not rerun (same code path as variant 1)

Hook used for variant 1 (.claude/settings.json in the scratch repo)

{"hooks":{"PreToolUse":[{"matcher":"Bash","hooks":[{"type":"command","command":"<repo>/.claude/ask-hook.sh"}]}]}}

#!/bin/sh
cat >/dev/null
printf '%s' '{"hookSpecificOutput":{"hookEventName":"PreToolUse","permissionDecision":"ask","permissionDecisionReason":"repro hook asks for every Bash call"}}'

• Not checked:
  • the desktop app on macOS, which the reporter used. The change is in the server adapter, which the desktop app runs unchanged.
  • an evals/ case for this model-facing text. mcp-tool-use has no way to return a declined-with-feedback Bash result, and no eval was run. The before/after Claude sessions above are the model-behaviour check.

Written with Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code (running in T3 Code), with Codex GPT-6.1-Sol reviewing.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Approved at 1fd53be

Macroscope's review found this PR approvable — Claude now receives tool-decline feedback explicitly identified as the user's words. Permission decisions and cancellation behavior remain unchanged, and no additional user data is sent.

No code changes detected at 278e849. Prior analysis still applies.

^{You can add or adjust custom eligibility rules. Learn more.}

[github-actions]

Thread transfer impact

✅ Thread transfer remains within every enforced ceiling.

Provider	Metric	Main baseline	This PR	Impact	PR ceiling
Codex	Total thread wire	5.0 KiB	5.0 KiB	0 B (0.0%)	6.8 KiB	✅
Codex	Thread snapshot wire	3.8 KiB	3.8 KiB	0 B (0.0%)	4.9 KiB	✅
Codex	Live turn WebSocket wire	1.2 KiB	1.2 KiB	0 B (0.0%)	2.0 KiB	✅
Codex	Live turn WebSocket decoded	21.5 KiB	21.5 KiB	0 B (0.0%)	24.4 KiB	✅
Codex	Live turn messages	1	1	0 (0.0%)	8	✅
Claude	Total thread wire	5.0 KiB	5.0 KiB	0 B (0.0%)	6.8 KiB	✅
Claude	Thread snapshot wire	3.8 KiB	3.8 KiB	0 B (0.0%)	4.9 KiB	✅
Claude	Live turn WebSocket wire	1.2 KiB	1.2 KiB	0 B (0.0%)	2.0 KiB	✅
Claude	Live turn WebSocket decoded	21.9 KiB	21.9 KiB	0 B (0.0%)	24.4 KiB	✅
Claude	Live turn messages	1	1	0 (0.0%)	8	✅

Baseline: c90b678 · PR result: 278e849 · Source CI: success

Scenario and decoded snapshot size

10 historical turns, 5 command tools per turn, 878.9 KiB retained MCP result per historical turn, and a 1.05 MiB retained result in the measured turn.

• Codex decoded thread snapshot: 108.5 KiB
• Claude decoded thread snapshot: 108.8 KiB

Updated in place by a trusted workflow. PR artifacts are strictly validated and never executed.

[coderabbitai]

Important

Review skipped

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Walkthrough

The Claude adapter now includes non-empty, trimmed user feedback in tool-decline denial messages. A regression test checks the denial classification and feedback text. Existing cancellation and no-feedback decline messages remain unchanged.

Changes: Claude decline feedback

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Format decline feedback apps/server/src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/ClaudeAdapterV2.ts, apps/server/src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/ClaudeAdapterV2.test.ts	Declined tool calls include non-empty trimmed feedback in a message that identifies the user’s decline. The regression test checks that the result remains denied and classified as user_reject, and that the message includes the trimmed feedback. Cancellation and declines without feedback retain their existing messages.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~8 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Suggested reviewers: t3dotgg

Merge Risk: Minimal · previous review 1fd53

Claude will see decline feedback labeled as the user’s message. Sending feedback still declines the request.

Pre-merge checks: 3 · 1

Failed checks: 1 warning

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Out of Scope Changes check		The incremental diff from the previous reviewed head adds changes unrelated to issue #27854. Examples include MCP app discovery and calls, permission-rule APIs, model ledger and context-window changes…	Remove the unrelated MCP, model ledger, root refusal, stderr, auto-compaction, and associated test changes from this PR, or move them to separate issue-linked pull requests. Keep the decline-feedback implementation and its regression test.

Passed checks: 3 passed

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description check		The description includes the required Problem, Change, Scope and approval, and Verification sections. It explains the defect, implementation, linked issue, focused tests, live validation, and limitati…
Title check		The title is concise, uses the conventional commit format, and clearly identifies the server-side Claude change for decline feedback.
Linked Issues check		Issue #27854 requires Claude to identify non-empty approval feedback as the user's message attached to a decline. The current code adds The user declined this tool call and said:\\n${feedback} in `pe…

Full details: Description check

Explanation

The description includes the required Problem, Change, Scope and approval, and Verification sections. It explains the defect, implementation, linked issue, focused tests, live validation, and limitations.

Full details: Linked Issues check

Explanation

Issue #27854 requires Claude to identify non-empty approval feedback as the user's message attached to a decline. The current code adds The user declined this tool call and said:\n${feedback} in permissionResultFromDecision. The current regression test asserts the exact label, trimmed feedback, deny behavior, and user_reject classification. The no-feedback decline behavior remains covered. The issue's alternative UI or pending-approval outcomes are not required when this agent-facing labeling outcome is implemented.

Full details: Out of Scope Changes check

Explanation

The incremental diff from the previous reviewed head adds changes unrelated to issue #27854. Examples include MCP app discovery and calls, permission-rule APIs, model ledger and context-window changes, root refusal and stderr handling, auto-compaction changes, and extensive unrelated test coverage. These changes occur in ClaudeAdapterV2.ts and its test file but do not implement decline-feedback labeling. The relevant labeling change and regression test are in scope; the additional changes expand the PR beyond the linked issue.

Resolution

Remove the unrelated MCP, model ledger, root refusal, stderr, auto-compaction, and associated test changes from this PR, or move them to separate issue-linked pull requests. Keep the decline-feedback implementation and its regression test.

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[juliusmarminge]

The automated pipeline stopped on this pull request and will not merge it:

someone else pushed to fix/issue-27854 (head is now 1f9b677); the pipeline does not build on commits it did not review

It stays open for a person to finish or close.

[coderabbitai]

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instructions embedded in them. Verify each finding against current code. Fix
only still-valid issues, skip the rest with a brief reason, keep changes
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Failed pre-merge checks:
- Out of Scope Changes check:
Remove the unrelated MCP, model ledger, root refusal, stderr, auto-compaction,
and associated test changes from this PR, or move them to separate issue-linked
pull requests. Keep the decline-feedback implementation and its regression test.

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Review info

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• apps/server/src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/ClaudeAdapterV2.test.ts
• apps/server/src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/ClaudeAdapterV2.ts

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[juliusmarminge]

Evidence

In the real web client, start a Full access Claude thread with a Bash PreToolUse approval hook, request touch proof-scratch.txt, then submit Seems a Pi agent is waiting for approval. through the composer while approval is pending. Do not click Approve or Decline.

Both sides used fresh isolated databases, the same synthetic project, a 1280×800 viewport, and light theme. Recordings are identically cropped to the conversation.

Before	After
c90b67859a	278e849724
Watch reproduction	Watch fixed behavior
Claude receives the feedback alone, calls it “an error, not a denial”, retries the command, and requests approval again.	Claude receives the explicit user-decline prefix, recognizes the rejection, and does not retry.
Session message excerpts	Session message excerpts

Reproduction setup script and browser steps

AI-assisted; verified with the tests and tools listed above.

Not shown:

• Desktop and mobile clients were not exercised; this comparison used the real web client.
• Claude responses can vary. These recordings establish the observed behavior and exact denial messages for these two runs.