What
The recovery Claude Code runs when a safety classifier stops a response no longer needs to be switched on. A safety classifier is an automated check that can halt a reply partway through. Until this release the recovery ran only if you set the environment variable CLAUDE_CODE_OCHRE_KITE, or if the server-side flag tengu_ochre_kite was on, and that flag counted as off when the server gave no value. An environment variable is a named setting you give a program when you start it. Both the variable and the flag are removed. Now:
- It retries once by default: when safeguards stop a response in the main conversation, Claude Code shows "safeguards stopped the response above · continuing once with that noted" and tries once more on the same model.
- Tool calls in the stopped response still get a recorded result, such as "Not run: the response that made this tool call was stopped by a safety classifier." A tool call is an action Claude asked to take, like running a command or editing a file.
CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_REFUSAL_RETRYis a new environment variable. When it is set, the retry does not run.- Some requests are still excluded: the retry does not run for background helper requests (those classed as "auxiliary"), or when the caller passes an internal argument that skips it.
Why
A refusal no longer simply ends the turn for everyone. The model gets one more attempt, with a note that a safeguard was triggered. If you would rather a stopped response end the turn as before, set CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_REFUSAL_RETRY.
tengu_ochre_kite Off in both readingsThe flag server returned off for the account this site reads and for the anonymous baseline. A reading of off cannot rule out a rollout these two readings sit outside of.
This account: off · anonymous baseline: off · compiled default in v2.1.282: not a boolean we can read
These values were read against a different version of Claude Code, so treat them as the nearest reading available instead of one taken on this release.
Read once, for one account on one subscription tier, against v2.1.282. It isn't a statement about your account. What a flag value here can and cannot tell you
It is not clear exactly what the retry does after a refusal.