[BUG] Voice dictation (mic button) silently stops transcribing after a random pause, while the mic icon still shows as active

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

When using the microphone/dictation button in the Claude Code chat input, speech recognition stops transcribing text at a random point during dictation, usually after a few seconds and often coinciding with a natural pause in speech. The microphone icon in the UI continues to appear active/listening, giving no visual indication that the session has actually stopped. The only way to resume is to manually toggle the mic button off and on again.

What Should Happen?

Either the recognition session should automatically restart/resume after a pause so dictation continues seamlessly, or the mic icon should clearly indicate when the session has ended so the user knows to restart it manually.

Error Messages/Logs

No error UI is shown. The mic icon stays visually active/listening after the session has actually stopped.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Click the microphone button in the Claude Code chat input.
2. Start dictating a message of more than a few seconds in length, with natural pauses between phrases (as in normal speech).
3. Observe that at some point during dictation, newly spoken words stop appearing in the input field, even though the mic icon still looks active.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.208

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

Cross-checks already done on Windows (ruled out, not the cause):

• Windows' built-in Voice Typing (Win+H) and its AllowInputPersonalization group policy — this is a separate system-level dictation mechanism, unrelated to this extension's mic button.
• accessibility.voice.speechTimeout (VS Code core setting) defaults to 0 (disabled), so it is not an auto-cutoff timer causing this.
• The @vscode/vscode-speech companion extension is not installed, confirming VS Code's built-in accessibility voice feature is not in play — the mic button belongs to the Claude Code extension itself.
• anthropic.claude-code's package.json does not expose any configurable settings for voice/microphone/dictation timeout.

Found a supportsSpeechRecognition capability flag in the extension's webview/index.js, suggesting this is a session-handling issue in the extension's own dictation implementation rather than an OS or VS Code configuration problem.

Possibly related (different product surface, not a duplicate): #72469 (Cowork Desktop app, mic breaks on 2nd attempt) — may share a root cause around audio session/stream teardown, but that issue is about the Desktop app failing on repeat attempts, while this one is about a single session cutting off mid-dictation in the VS Code extension.