Query diagnostics

ai-assist records a lightweight timeline for every query at ~/.ai-assist/traces/query_events.jsonl. Unlike the final query trace, this file is updated while the query runs, so it remains useful after Ctrl-C or a provider failure.

Events contain only operational metadata: query ID, elapsed time, turn, phase, and tool name. Prompts, tool arguments, and tool results are not saved there.

Use /debug during an interactive query to see its current phase and elapsed time. Useful phases include model_stream_opened, model_first_event, tool_started, and tool_completed.

Model streams time out if the first event or a later event takes too long:

export AI_ASSIST_MODEL_FIRST_EVENT_TIMEOUT=120
export AI_ASSIST_MODEL_IDLE_TIMEOUT=120

Both values are seconds and default to 120. On timeout, the query returns an error rather than waiting indefinitely; increase them for deliberately slow models or providers.

Security approval prompts are also cancelled with their query. If an older process left a terminal in raw mode after an interruption, run stty sane in that terminal before restarting ai-assist.