Claude Quits Long Jobs Halfway: The One Paragraph From Anthropic's Own Guide That Keeps It Going All Night
You leave Claude working overnight and wake up to "Want me to keep going?" Anthropic's prompting guide for Fable 5.1 names exactly why it stops early, and gives one paragraph that fixes it. The ways it quits, why, and the paragraph to paste before you go to bed.
You hand Claude a big job, go to bed, and wake up to one message: "Want me to keep going?" It stopped a few minutes after you left, and it sat there all night waiting for a yes. Anthropic's own prompting guide for Fable 5.1 says this is a known habit on long jobs, names the ways it happens, and gives one paragraph that fixes it.
Here is why Claude stops early, and the paragraph to paste in before your next overnight run.
Why Claude stops early
Claude is built to work with a person in the loop. When you're watching, checking in is polite: you say "go ahead" and it carries on. When nobody is watching, the same habit costs you the whole night. The guide, in a section called "Finish the whole task", lists what it looks like:
- It announces the next step instead of doing it. The turn ends on a plan: "Next, I'll …", and nothing runs until you reply.
- It asks permission for work you already asked for. "Shall I apply this?" about a step your original request already covered.
- It ends on a question or a list of next steps, even when nothing is actually blocking the work.
- It stops because the session got long, not because the job is done.
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