AskUserQuestion tool behavior

Claude uses AskUserQuestion to ask you multiple-choice questions when it needs a decision or a clarification. Answer by picking an option, or type your own text through the Other row or the notes field.

When you answer by typing your own text, Claude Code relays the answer with neutral wording so Claude follows what you wrote, including a request to wait or explain first.

Question auto-continue timeout

Questions stay open until you answer them. If you want a question you leave unanswered to eventually close and let Claude continue without you, set the askUserQuestionTimeout setting to 60s, 5m, or 10m, either in your user settings.json or from the Question auto-continue timeout row in /config.

After a question sits that long with no input, the dialog closes on its own: it submits any options you'd already selected and tells Claude you may be away from your keyboard, so Claude proceeds on its own judgment and can re-ask later. You see a countdown for the last 20 seconds. Press any key to restart the timer; on terminals that report focus, switching to the window restarts it too.

The timeout applies only to AskUserQuestion's multiple-choice questions; permission prompts, including plan approval, never auto-resolve on idle.