PRODUCTION SCENARIO
Your research agent uses the web search server tool. On a broad query the response comes back with stop_reason pause_turn, no client tool_use blocks, and a partly finished answer. The loop you wrote treats any unfamiliar stop reason as a failure and retries the original prompt from scratch.
What is the correct way for the loop to handle this response?
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Show answer and explanation
Answer: Append the returned assistant content to the messages and send the request again as-is
A paused turn means the server-side sampling loop reached its iteration limit while running a server tool such as web search, ten iterations by default. Sending the assistant content back unchanged lets Claude pick up where it paused. It is neither a truncation nor a refusal, and the client never supplies results for server-side tools.