Document max_turns settings for recipes and subagents (#7044)

This commit is contained in:
Emma Youndtsmith
2026-02-06 11:04:12 -06:00
committed by GitHub
parent 01e31f7c8d
commit 966ced19bb
4 changed files with 36 additions and 5 deletions
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ These variables control how goose manages conversation sessions and context.
|----------|---------|---------|---------|
| `GOOSE_CONTEXT_STRATEGY` | Controls how goose handles context limit exceeded situations | "summarize", "truncate", "clear", "prompt" | "prompt" (interactive), "summarize" (headless) |
| `GOOSE_MAX_TURNS` | [Maximum number of turns](/docs/guides/sessions/smart-context-management#maximum-turns) allowed without user input | Integer (e.g., 10, 50, 100) | 1000 |
| `GOOSE_SUBAGENT_MAX_TURNS` | Sets the maximum turns allowed for a [subagent](/docs/guides/subagents) to complete before timeout | Integer (e.g., 25) | 25 |
| `GOOSE_SUBAGENT_MAX_TURNS` | Sets the maximum turns allowed for a [subagent](/docs/guides/subagents) to complete before timeout. Can be overridden by [`settings.max_turns`](/docs/guides/recipes/recipe-reference#settings) in recipes or subagent tool calls. | Integer (e.g., 25) | 25 |
| `CONTEXT_FILE_NAMES` | Specifies custom filenames for [hint/context files](/docs/guides/context-engineering/using-goosehints#custom-context-files) | JSON array of strings (e.g., `["CLAUDE.md", ".goosehints"]`) | `[".goosehints"]` |
| `GOOSE_PROMPT_EDITOR` | [External editor](/docs/guides/goose-cli-commands#external-editor-mode) to use for composing prompts instead of CLI input | Editor command (e.g., "vim", "code --wait") | Unset (uses CLI input) |
| `GOOSE_CLI_THEME` | [Theme](/docs/guides/goose-cli-commands#themes) for CLI response markdown | "light", "dark", "ansi" | "dark" |
@@ -247,7 +247,8 @@ export GOOSE_MAX_TURNS=25
# Set a reasonable limit for production
export GOOSE_MAX_TURNS=100
# Customize subagent turn limit
# Customize the default subagent turn limit
# Note: This can be overridden per-recipe or per-subagent using the max_turns setting
export GOOSE_SUBAGENT_MAX_TURNS=50
# Use multiple context files