[Bug]: Claude auto-compaction still shows "Thinking" — status:"compacting" is flattened into the generic running state
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Description
Before submitting
- I searched existing issues and did not find a duplicate.
- I included enough detail to reproduce or investigate the problem.
Area
apps/server
Steps to reproduce
- Start a thread with the Claude provider and keep working until the context fills up enough that Claude Code compacts on its own (do not type
/compact). - Watch the thread status in the web client while that compaction runs.
Expected behavior
Automatic compaction surfaces the same Compacting… state that #9293 added for the manual command, so it is obvious the agent is compacting rather than stalled.
Actual behavior
The thread just says Thinking (and Working for N) for the entire compaction, which can run for minutes with no output. It is indistinguishable from a stuck or looping turn.
The Compacting… state added by #9293 is gated entirely on an explicit /compact user message:
apps/web/src/components/ChatView.tsx:661—isCompactCommandMessagematches a user message whose text is exactly/compactwith no attachmentsapps/web/src/components/ChatView.tsx:2945—isCompactingis derived from that message plus turn timestamps
Automatic compaction produces no such message, and Claude's own start signal is discarded before any client can see it:
apps/server/src/provider/Layers/ClaudeAdapter.ts:3411—SDKStatusMessagestatus:"compacting"is flattened into the genericwaitingsession stateapps/server/src/orchestration/Layers/ProviderRuntimeIngestion.ts:261-279—orchestrationSessionStatusFromRuntimeStatecollapseswaitingintorunning
So by the time the orchestration session reaches the client, "compacting" and "running a normal turn" are the same value. compact_boundary only arrives after compaction, so the completed divider and token counts do render — but nothing marks the interval while it is running.
This is the case #7652 originally described (it names ClaudeAdapter's status:"compacting" → waiting flattening as the root cause). #7652 was closed as fixed by #9293, and #7714 — which did implement the automatic path via an optional statusDetail: "compacting" / compactingSince on OrchestrationSession, fed by Claude's status:"compacting", Codex's contextCompaction item, and OpenCode's session.time.compacting — was closed as superseded at the same time. #9293 only shipped the manual /compact command path, so the automatic case is still unhandled on main.
Impact
Minor bug or occasional failure
(Cosmetic in mechanism, but it reliably reads as a hung agent: users cancel turns and waste tokens because a multi-minute silent Thinking looks broken.)
Version or commit
main @ 6c58362 (line numbers above verified against that commit; originally observed on a fork tracking upstream 299404a)
Environment
Linux, web client served from source (apps/server + apps/web), Node 24.15, Claude provider.
Logs or stack traces
n/a — no error is produced; the status label is simply generic.
Workaround
None for automatic compaction. Typing /compact manually does show Compacting…, but that only covers the case that already works.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start in apps/server/src/provider/Layers/ClaudeAdapter.ts around the SDKStatusMessage handling, then trace orchestrationSessionStatusFromRuntimeState in apps/server/src/orchestration/Layers/ProviderRuntimeIngestion.ts and the status derivation in apps/web/src/components/ChatView.tsx. Compare the automatic status:"compacting" path with the existing /compact path; done means automatic Claude compaction displays Compacting… instead of Thinking while it runs.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- typescript
- Domain
- full-stack
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 68/100