Tool call: bash times out when it should not

[mslinn]

🔧 Tool Call: bash
   Arguments:
   {
     "command": "timeout 5 /tmp/jc_new status -v \"$computers\" 2>&1"
   }

✗ Error: Command timed out after 120 seconds

This problem is not specific to any one bash command, and it is a major source of frustration.

Mini-agent uses its internal bash tool to gather information, but when the tool times out after 120 seconds due to some unknown internal problem, mini-agent assumes that the bash command it was trying to run is the source of the error. So it introduces lots of debugging that goes nowhere because again the bash tool continues to fail.

I have seen mini-agent attempt to use shorter timeouts, as shown above, but that parameter is always ignored.

Chaos ensues.

[AkairoDev]

The most likely cause is that /tmp/jc_new becomes blocked or hanging, which causes the mini-agent’s bash tool to freeze until the global 120-second limit is reached. In this state, the outer tool never actually gets to execute the timeout 5 ... wrapper — so the shorter timeout cannot take effect.

We will improve this behavior in the next generation of the model.