Hmbown/CodeWhale · error

child wall-time budget exhausted; continuation cannot reset…

Error message

child wall-time budget exhausted; continuation cannot reset its deadline

What it means

A continuation inherits the source's wall-clock deadline; the effective deadline is the narrower of the runtime profile's limit, the source's remaining deadline, and the requested one. If that effective deadline is already in the past (deadline_ms <= now_ms), the continuation is refused — it cannot restart the clock on an expired budget.

Solutions

1. Spawn a fresh child with a new wall-time budget instead of continuing the expired one.
2. Increase `wall_deadline_ms` in the worker profile so remaining time stays positive.
3. Create the continuation promptly after interrupting, before the deadline elapses.
4. If resuming persisted work, check the source's remaining deadline before attempting continuation.

Example fix

// before
let child = continue_agent(source)?; // Err if source deadline expired

// after
let remaining_ms = source_deadline.saturating_sub(now_ms);
let child = if remaining_ms > 0 {
    continue_agent(source)?
} else {
    spawn_fresh_agent(source.task, wall_deadline = fresh_deadline)?
};

let effective = narrow_optional_limit(profile.wall_deadline_ms, source_deadline)
    .map_or(requested_deadline, |d| d.min(requested_deadline));
if effective <= now_ms() { spawn_fresh_child(task); } else { continue_child(source)?; }

match continue_child(source) {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("wall-time budget exhausted") => {
        spawn_fresh_child_with_new_deadline(source.task)
    }
    other => other?,
}

When it happens

Trigger: Continuing a child when `narrow_optional_limit(profile.wall_deadline_ms, source_deadline).min(requested_deadline)` resolves to <= current time — i.e. the source's wall-time window expired before the continuation was created.

Common situations: A child interrupted near its deadline and resumed too late; long queueing before the continuation request; `wall_deadline_ms` configured too tight for the task; system clock jump or long pause between interrupt and resume.

Understand the failure class

Background: Request timed out: what client-side request timeouts mean across libraries (Request timed out, TIMED_OUT, APITimeoutError) — this error's family across 39 libraries.

Related errors

• child step budget exhausted; continuation cannot reset its…
• child wall-time budget exhausted
• child wall-time budget exhausted
• first timed-out API attempt should reach the test server
• Sub-agent depth limit reached

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@73e0f67d83 (2026-09-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fc1ef00b2bf5d3f3. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/tui/src/tools/subagent/mod.rs:6940

                    .map(Duration::from_secs)
                    .unwrap_or(MAX_CHILD_WALL_TIME),
            )
            .min(MAX_CHILD_WALL_TIME);
        let now_ms = epoch_millis_now();
        let requested_deadline =
            now_ms.saturating_add(u64::try_from(wall_time.as_millis()).unwrap_or(u64::MAX));
        let source_deadline = options
            .resume_from_agent_id
            .as_deref()
            .and_then(|id| self.worker_records.get(id))
            .and_then(|record| record.spec.runtime_profile.wall_deadline_ms);
        let deadline_ms =
            narrow_optional_limit(runtime.worker_profile.wall_deadline_ms, source_deadline)
                .map_or(requested_deadline, |deadline| {
                    deadline.min(requested_deadline)
                });
        if deadline_ms <= now_ms {
            return Err(anyhow!(
                "child wall-time budget exhausted; continuation cannot reset its deadline"
            ));
        }
        let wall_time = Duration::from_millis(deadline_ms - now_ms);
        let continuation_from = if options.checkpoint_continuation {
            let source = options
                .resume_from_agent_id
                .as_deref()
                .ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("Checkpoint continuation requires a source agent"))?;
            let source =
                self.resolve_agent_ref_for_session(&runtime.context.state_namespace, source)?;
            if self.resume_targets.contains_key(&source) {
                return Err(anyhow!(
                    "Source already has a continuation; address it with followup"
                ));
            }
            Some(source)
        } else {

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