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Stop Claude Goal Check-ins From Eating Your Limit

What a goal check-in is, the one setting that turns it off, how to check it worked, and what else the setting switches off

Alex Chen@nocodealex · 45,000+ follow on Instagram

2min read

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When you set a goal with /goal and it waits on a slow background job, Claude Code checks in on that job after 30 minutes. A check-in is a new turn, and every turn sends your whole conversation again. If you walk away, idle check-ins can start by themselves. One setting turns them off.

Step 1: turn the check-ins off

Update Claude Code, run claude --version, and make sure it says 2.1.234 or higher.
Open ~/.claude/settings.json.
Add the variable to the env block (or export it in your shell): CLAUDE_CODE_GOAL_CHECKIN_MINUTES set to 0.
Start a new Claude Code session so it reads the setting.

The line to add, inside "env": "CLAUDE_CODE_GOAL_CHECKIN_MINUTES": "0".

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