CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_REFUSAL_RETRY

Updated October 14, 2026 by Alex Sorokoletov

CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_REFUSAL_RETRY is a Claude Code environment variable. Added between v2.1.269 and v2.1.283 and still present in v2.1.295. It is not in the official reference.

How to set it

For one session, export it in the shell that starts Claude Code:

export CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_REFUSAL_RETRY=<value>
claude

To apply it to every session, add it to the env object of a settings file:

// ~/.claude/settings.json
{
  "env": {
    "CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_REFUSAL_RETRY": "<value>"
  }
}

Related variables

• CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_DANGEROUS_RM_TIMEOUT
• CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_MEMORY_STREAM_LIST: Turns off the incremental metadata-streaming path inside multi-store memory sync.
• CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_MTLS_RELOAD_ON_STALE_CONNECTION
• CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONSTREAMING_FALLBACK: Disables the fallback path that retries failed streaming requests as non-streaming calls.
• CLAUDE_CODE_OVERLOADED_RETRY_BASE_DELAY_MS: Sets the base delay, in milliseconds, for the backoff when a request comes back overloaded (HTTP 529).
• CLAUDE_CODE_OVERLOADED_RETRY_MAX_DELAY_MS
• CLAUDE_CODE_RETRY_WATCHDOG: Tunes the retry watchdog that detects API calls silently looping without progress.
• CLAUDE_CODE_RETRY_WATCHDOG_MAX_WAIT_MS: Caps the total time unattended retry mode (CLAUDE_CODE_RETRY_WATCHDOG) waits through 429 and 529 responses.

Frequently asked questions

All variables, searchable: Claude Code environment variables.