Auto-resume after usage limit window resets

Problem

When a user hits their 5-hour usage limit with "extra usage" disabled, Claude Code hard-stops with no recovery path. The user must manually restart after the window resets.

Expected behavior

Claude Code should offer to wait and automatically resume when the usage window resets, rather than forcing a manual restart. This is a simple polling loop:

1. Detect rate-limit / quota-exhausted response
2. Display countdown or periodic status ("Usage window resets in ~Xm, waiting...")
3. Auto-retry when the window opens
4. Resume the session (or start a new one with context carried over via --continue)

Why this matters

• Long-running agentic tasks get silently killed mid-execution
• Users on Pro/Team plans without extra usage lose session context
• The workaround is trivial (shell loop checking exit codes), which makes the missing built-in support feel like an oversight

Current workaround

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# claude-resume: auto-restart after rate limit
POLL_INTERVAL="${CLAUDE_POLL_INTERVAL:-300}"
while true; do
    claude "$@"
    EXIT_CODE=$?
    [[ $EXIT_CODE -eq 0 ]] && break
    echo "Rate-limited. Retrying in ${POLL_INTERVAL}s... (Ctrl+C to quit)"
    sleep "$POLL_INTERVAL" || break
done

Suggested implementation

• Specific exit code for rate-limit (e.g., exit 75) so wrappers can distinguish from crashes
• Built-in --wait-on-limit flag that enables the poll-and-resume loop natively
• Ideally, keep the session alive in a paused state rather than exiting

Environment

• Claude Code 2.1.79
• macOS 15.5
• Plan: Pro (extra usage off)