Fix MCP elicitation deadlock and improve UX #6650

blackgirlbytes · 2026-01-22T21:23:56Z

Summary

Fixes a deadlock in MCP elicitation that caused requests to timeout immediately, and improves the user experience by adding a visible countdown timer.

Before it would say my request immediately timed out

After, it would actually give some time for the time out and give the user an indication that it will time out

Screen.Recording.2026-01-22.at.4.21.26.PM.mov

Problem

When an MCP server called elicitInput(), the elicitation form would appear in the UI but immediately timeout. This was caused by a deadlock:

Tool calls elicitInput() → blocks waiting for user response
Elicitation message sent to channel
Agent's tool loop waits on combined.next().await for tool results
drain_elicitation_messages() only runs after a tool yields
But the tool is blocked waiting for elicitation → deadlock

Solution

Rust (agent.rs)

Changed the tool execution loop to use tokio::select! with a 100ms timeout. This allows the loop to periodically check for elicitation messages even when tools are blocked:

loop {
    // Drain elicitation messages first
    for msg in self.drain_elicitation_messages(...).await {
        yield AgentEvent::Message(msg);
    }

    tokio::select! {
        tool_item = combined.next() => { /* handle tool result */ }
        _ = tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_millis(100)) => {
            // Continue loop to check for elicitation messages
        }
    }
}

UI (ElicitationRequest.tsx)

Added visual feedback so users understand the time constraint:

Countdown timer showing time remaining (5 minutes)
Pulsing clock icon with "Waiting for your response" message
Urgent state - turns red when under 60 seconds
Expired state - clear message when time runs out

Testing

Create an MCP server that uses elicitation
Call a tool that triggers elicitInput()
Verify the form appears with countdown timer
Submit within 5 minutes → tool continues with response
Let it expire → shows expired message

- Fix deadlock in agent.rs where elicitation messages weren't being delivered to the UI. The tool execution loop now uses tokio::select! with a 100ms timeout to periodically check for elicitation messages even when tools are blocked waiting for user input. - Add countdown timer to ElicitationRequest component so users know they have 5 minutes to respond. Timer turns red when under 60 seconds and shows an expired state when time runs out. - Add 'Waiting for your response' indicator with pulsing clock icon to make it clear the system is waiting for user input.

Copilot

Pull request overview

Fixes a deadlock where MCP elicitation requests could time out immediately by ensuring the agent loop continues to drain elicitation messages, and improves the desktop UI by showing a visible countdown/expiry state for elicitation prompts.

Changes:

Update the agent tool execution loop to periodically poll for elicitation messages via tokio::select! + timeout.
Add an elicitation countdown timer, urgent styling, and an “expired” UI state in the desktop app.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File	Description
ui/desktop/src/components/ElicitationRequest.tsx	Adds countdown timer + urgent/expired UI for elicitation requests.
crates/goose/src/agents/agent.rs	Prevents elicitation deadlock by draining elicitation messages while waiting on tool streams.

Copilot · 2026-01-22T21:27:10Z

ui/desktop/src/components/ElicitationRequest.tsx

  const [submitted, setSubmitted] = useState(isClicked);
+  const [timeRemaining, setTimeRemaining] = useState(ELICITATION_TIMEOUT_SECONDS);
+  const startTimeRef = useRef(Date.now());
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (submitted || isCancelledMessage || isClicked) return;


The countdown is anchored to startTimeRef = Date.now() on mount and never re-initialized for a new elicitationId (or persisted across unmount/remount), so the UI can show an incorrect remaining time after navigation or if the component is reused. Consider keying the start timestamp by elicitationId (e.g., a module-level Map) and/or resetting startTimeRef.current + timeRemaining whenever elicitationId changes (and include elicitationId in the effect deps).

The timer resets on mount, which is intentional. If the user navigates away, the server-side timeout continues and the elicitation will expire. When they return, it will be a new elicitation request with a new ID, so a fresh timer is correct.

crates/goose/src/agents/agent.rs

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Copilot · 2026-01-22T21:37:46Z

ui/desktop/src/components/ElicitationRequest.tsx

+  const startTimeRef = useRef(Date.now());
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (submitted || isCancelledMessage || isClicked) return;
+
+    const interval = setInterval(() => {
+      const elapsed = Math.floor((Date.now() - startTimeRef.current) / 1000);
+      const remaining = Math.max(0, ELICITATION_TIMEOUT_SECONDS - elapsed);
+      setTimeRemaining(remaining);
+
+      if (remaining === 0) {
+        clearInterval(interval);
+      }
+    }, 1000);
+
+    return () => clearInterval(interval);
+  }, [submitted, isCancelledMessage, isClicked]);



The countdown is anchored to component mount time (useRef(Date.now())), so if the elicitation message is rendered from history (or otherwise mounts late) the UI can incorrectly show a fresh 5:00 remaining even though the server-side 5 minute timeout has already partially/fully elapsed; consider basing the start time on the message’s created timestamp (pass it in) and/or resetting startTimeRef/timeRemaining when actionRequiredContent.data.id changes.

blackgirlbytes · 2026-01-22T22:30:26Z

/goose please review

github-actions · 2026-01-22T22:34:24Z

Summary: This PR fixes a real deadlock in MCP elicitation where the tool loop blocked waiting for results while elicitation messages couldn't be drained. The polling approach with tokio::select! and 100ms timeout is a pragmatic solution, and the UI countdown timer provides good user feedback. The fix is sound and solves the described problem.

🟡 Warnings

Duplicate timeout constants (mcp_client.rs, ElicitationRequest.tsx)

The 300-second timeout is hardcoded in two places with no shared source of truth:
- Rust: Duration::from_secs(300) in crates/goose/src/agents/mcp_client.rs
- UI: const ELICITATION_TIMEOUT_SECONDS = 300; in ElicitationRequest.tsx
If these drift, the UI could show time remaining after the backend has already timed out (or vice versa). Consider either:
- Having the backend send the timeout value (or expiry timestamp) as part of the elicitation message
- Extracting a shared constant if that's not feasible

🟢 Suggestions

SVG duplication (ElicitationRequest.tsx:93-106, 129-140)

The clock icon SVG appears twice in the component. Consider extracting to a small ClockIcon component:

const ClockIcon = ({ className }: { className?: string }) => (
  <svg className={className} xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 24 24" stroke="currentColor" strokeWidth={2}>
    <path strokeLinecap="round" strokeLinejoin="round" d="M12 8v4l3 3m6-3a9 9 0 11-18 0 9 9 0 0118 0z" />
  </svg>
);

✅ Highlights

Correct use of biased; in tokio::select!: Prioritizes processing tool results when available, only falling through to the timeout branch when tools are blocked. This is exactly the right pattern.
Proper timer cleanup: The useEffect correctly returns a cleanup function to clear the interval, preventing memory leaks on unmount or re-render.
Correct state priority ordering: The submitted check comes before the isExpired check, so if a user submits just as the timer expires, the "submitted" state wins - good defensive ordering.
Good UX with visual urgency: The countdown turning red at 60 seconds provides clear visual feedback without being alarmist for the full 5 minutes.

Review generated by goose

* origin/main: fix: dispatch ADD_ACTIVE_SESSION event before navigating from "View All" (#6679) Speed up Databricks provider init by removing fetch of supported models (#6616) fix: correct typos in documentation and Justfile (#6686) docs: frameDomains and baseUriDomains for mcp apps (#6684) docs: add Remotion video creation tutorial (#6675) docs: export recipe and copy yaml (#6680) Test against fastmcp (#6666) docs: mid-session changes (#6672) Fix MCP elicitation deadlock and improve UX (#6650) chore: upgrade to rmcp 0.14.0 (#6674) [docs] add MCP-UI to MCP Apps blog (#6664) ACP get working dir from args.cwd (#6653) Optimise load config in UI (#6662) # Conflicts: # ui/desktop/src/components/Layout/AppLayout.tsx

…o dkatz/canonical-context * 'dkatz/canonical-provider' of github.com:block/goose: (27 commits) docs: add Remotion video creation tutorial (#6675) docs: export recipe and copy yaml (#6680) Test against fastmcp (#6666) docs: mid-session changes (#6672) Fix MCP elicitation deadlock and improve UX (#6650) chore: upgrade to rmcp 0.14.0 (#6674) [docs] add MCP-UI to MCP Apps blog (#6664) ACP get working dir from args.cwd (#6653) Optimise load config in UI (#6662) Fix GCP Vertex AI global endpoint support for Gemini 3 models (#6187) fix: macOS keychain infinite prompt loop (#6620) chore: reduce duplicate or unused cargo deps (#6630) feat: codex subscription support (#6600) smoke test allow pass for flaky providers (#6638) feat: Add built-in skill for goose documentation reference (#6534) Native images (#6619) docs: ml-based prompt injection detection (#6627) Strip the audience for compacting (#6646) chore(release): release version 1.21.0 (minor) (#6634) add collapsable chat nav (#6649) ...

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings January 22, 2026 21:23

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of blackgirlbytes January 22, 2026 21:24 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jan 22, 2026

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blackgirlbytes requested review from DOsinga, alexhancock and zanesq January 22, 2026 21:32

blackgirlbytes added 2 commits January 22, 2026 16:34

Remove redundant comment about elicitation message handling

03c88a1

Remove another redundant elicitation comment

181e78a

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings January 22, 2026 21:34

blackgirlbytes added 2 commits January 22, 2026 16:34

Remove tokio::select comment

43d21a5

Remove platform notifications comment

9588aae

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of blackgirlbytes January 22, 2026 21:35 View session

blackgirlbytes added 3 commits January 22, 2026 16:35

Remove tool streams completed comment

e84ff22

Remove timeout comment

aef4031

Remove timeout comment from ElicitationRequest

7cc24f5

Copilot AI reviewed Jan 22, 2026

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GSS1PROx approved these changes Jan 22, 2026

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alexhancock approved these changes Jan 23, 2026

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blackgirlbytes merged commit c1a916e into main Jan 23, 2026
23 of 24 checks passed

blackgirlbytes deleted the fix-elicitation-deadlock-and-ux branch January 23, 2026 19:59

This was referenced Jan 27, 2026

chore(release): release version 1.22.0 (minor) #6725

Open

chore(release): release version 1.22.0 (minor) salmanmkc/goose#1

Open

blackgirlbytes added a commit that referenced this pull request Jan 27, 2026

Fix MCP elicitation deadlock and improve UX (#6650)

92ca06d

github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Jan 27, 2026

chore(release): release version 1.21.2 (patch) #6668

Merged

BrewTestBot mentioned this pull request Jan 28, 2026

block-goose-cli 1.21.2 Homebrew/homebrew-core#264800

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Fix MCP elicitation deadlock and improve UX #6650

Fix MCP elicitation deadlock and improve UX #6650

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blackgirlbytes commented Jan 22, 2026 •

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Fix MCP elicitation deadlock and improve UX #6650

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Summary

Problem

Solution

Rust (agent.rs)

UI (ElicitationRequest.tsx)

Testing

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blackgirlbytes commented Jan 22, 2026 •

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