claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix /ultrareview consumes free run on Find-phase timeout failure for oversized diffs [1 participants]

Summary

/ultrareview consumes a free run from the 3-of-3 quota even when the cloud review fails before producing any findings. Specifically observed: a Find-phase timeout on an oversized diff failed the run, but the quota was still decremented from 3 to 2.

Reproduction

1. Confirm 3 free runs remaining (/extra-usage).
2. Check out main of a project and create a branch pointing at the project's earliest commit (or any base producing a very large diff).
3. Run /ultrareview <large-base-branch> against a diff that's far above the typical PR size — in my repro, 433 files / 241,017 insertions / ~417 commits.
4. Confirm the launch succeeded (CLI shows "Ultrareview launched...", session URL provided).
5. Wait for the task to complete.

Observed

• Session UI (example layout) shows:
  • Setup: ✅ pass
  • Find: ❌ fail (timeout/heartbeat)
  • Verify: ⏳ never ran
  • Dedupe: ⏳ never ran
• CLI returns <remote-review>[]</remote-review> (zero findings) — easily mistaken for "no bugs found" rather than "review failed before finding anything".
• /extra-usage shows 2 of 3 remaining — the failed run was charged.

Expected

A Find-phase failure (especially a timeout for being too large to process) should either:

a. Auto-refund the free run, since the user got nothing actionable out of it. b. Pre-flight reject the diff with a clear "diff too large, narrow the scope" message before consuming a run.

Why this matters

• The CLI output [] looks identical to "clean review, no bugs found" — a user could legitimately mistake this for a successful clean pass and merge / ship without a real review having happened. The session UI does show the failure, but only if you click through.
• Free runs are scarce (3 total per Pro/Max account, one-time, expiring May 5, 2026). Burning one on a no-output failure is high-friction.

Suggested fix

• Add a pre-flight diff-size check at launch time. If files-changed × insertions-added is above the cloud fleet's effective processing window, refuse with a clear "scope is too large; pass a more recent base branch or split into surface-specific reviews" message.
• Or: don't consume the free run unless Find phase produces output (verified or not).
• Make the CLI output for a failed Find phase distinct from a successful zero-findings result. [] should not be the only signal for both states.

Environment

• Claude Code CLI on Linux
• Anthropic Pro/Max subscription, extra-usage enabled
• Private GitHub repo (org-owned)