claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix Telegram plugin (and all stdio MCP plugins) disconnect after minutes of inactivity - makes messaging channels unusable [1 comments, 2 participants]

The Telegram channel plugin disconnects after roughly 5-10 minutes of conversation inactivity because Claude Code closes stdio MCP child processes when a session goes idle.

This makes the plugin completely unusable for its intended purpose - being reachable via Telegram when away from the computer. The connection only stays alive while actively using the conversation, which defeats the point of a messaging bridge.

Key findings from investigating the code:

• Claude Code's StdioClientTransport closes the pipe when the session ends
• server.ts detects EOF/orphan state and shuts down (lines 635-664)
• Stdio transports are explicitly excluded from automatic reconnection in cli.js - only SSE/HTTP transports get retry logic
• There is no exposed config (settings.json, .mcp.json) to control session lifetime or enable persistence for stdio servers

Requested fix (any of these would solve it):

1. Add a persistent: true flag in .mcp.json that keeps stdio servers alive across conversations
2. Enable auto-reconnect for stdio transports (already works for SSE/HTTP)
3. Add a configurable idle timeout so channel plugins aren't killed after minutes of inactivity
4. Allow stdio plugins to opt into the LSP-style restartOnCrash / maxRestarts behaviour that already exists in the LSP server schema

Environment: macOS, Claude Code desktop app, Telegram plugin v0.0.5