# Rewriting llama-server overflow errors to Claude Code's recognised wording > llama-server sends errors through `res->error()`, which sets the HTTP status to the object's `code` and the body to `{"error": }`. Parent: [Mac local LLMs: Agent clients, context and compaction](https://llms-explorer.com/tree/mac-local-llms-agent-clients-context-and-compaction/) · 1 facets · 25 facts · page: https://llms-explorer.com/tree/rewriting-llama-server-overflow-errors-to-claude/ ## Facts - llama-server sends errors through `res->error()`, which sets the HTTP status to the object's `code` and the body to `{"error": }`. — [source](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/master/tools/server/server-context.cpp) - For `ERROR_TYPE_EXCEED_CONTEXT_SIZE` the error object is `{"code": 400, "message": ..., "type": "exceed_context_size_error"}` plus two extra integer fields, `n_prompt_tokens` and `n_ctx`. — [source](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/master/tools/server/server-task.cpp) - `n_ctx` in that body is the slot's context (`send_error(slot, ...)` passes `slot.n_ctx`), so with `--parallel` slots sharing `-c` it is the per-request share, not the server total. — [source](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/master/tools/server/server-context.cpp) - A captured body reads `{"error":{"code":400,"message":"request (131088 tokens) exceeds the available context size (131072 tokens), try increasing it","type":"exceed_context_size_error","n_prompt_tokens":131088,"n_ctx":131072}}`, about 240 characters. — [source](https://api.github.com/repos/autonomous-ai/autonomous-grid/issues/118) - llama-server has two prompt-size wordings, both typed `exceed_context_size_error`: "input (%d tokens) is larger than the max context size (%d tokens). skipping" (a prompt that cannot be split and exceeds `n_ctx`) and "request (%d tokens) exceeds the available context size (%d tokens), try increasing it" (splittable prompt at or above `n_ctx`). — [source](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/master/tools/server/server-context.cpp) - A third, different failure reads "Context size has been exceeded." and comes from a failed decode when the batch size is 1; it is reported mid-stream and means the KV pool ran out, not that the prompt was too long. — [source](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/master/tools/server/server-context.cpp) - One user hit the KV-pool failure with `-c 262144` and automatic `--parallel` (four slots sharing one unified pool) when a main stream of about 200 messages ran alongside judge calls, and llama.cpp then failed every in-flight slot. — [source](https://api.github.com/repos/RinRin-32/pebble/issues/39) - Rewriting the KV-pool message to "prompt is too long" would send Claude Code compacting a prompt that was not the problem. — source: `asserted` - When the first result of a streaming request is an error, llama-server returns it as an ordinary non-streamed HTTP error, matching OpenAI behaviour, so a proxy sees a plain JSON 400 for prompt overflow even on a streaming request. — [source](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/master/tools/server/server-context.cpp) - A mid-stream error on the Anthropic route is sent as `event: error` with the flat error object as data, while the OpenAI route wraps it as `{"error": ...}`; neither is Anthropic's `{"type":"error","error":{...}}` shape. — [source](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/master/tools/server/server-context.cpp) - llama-server's Anthropic route has a `/v1/messages/count_tokens` handler as well as `/v1/messages`. — [source](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/master/tools/server/server-context.cpp) - Anthropic-style overflow text has the form `prompt is too long: 205000 tokens > 200000 maximum allowed`, which LiteLLM PR 43301 (open) adds, with `context_length_exceeded`, to its context-window error checks. — [source](https://api.github.com/repos/BerriAI/litellm/pulls/43301) - Claude Code v2.1.142 made the first reactive-compaction summary seed "from the original request's overflow size", avoiding a wasted near-full-context retry. — [source](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anthropics/claude-code/main/CHANGELOG.md) - Claude Code v2.1.288 fixed long conversations failing with "Prompt is too long" instead of auto-compacting when the last reply reported zero token usage, which matters for local servers that return zero usage. — [source](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anthropics/claude-code/main/CHANGELOG.md) - Claude Code v2.1.274 fixed hook-driven sessions ending with "Prompt is too long" when overflow recurred after a reactive compaction, and v2.1.284 made a still-too-long compacted request compact once more with less recent conversation kept. — [source](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anthropics/claude-code/main/CHANGELOG.md) - Claude Code v2.1.285 made sessions behind a custom `ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL` use the 1M window of models that have one, with `/autocompact 200k` as the fix for a gateway that stops at 200K. — [source](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anthropics/claude-code/main/CHANGELOG.md) - A relay that cut engine error bodies at 200 characters broke the JSON mid-object (`"n_ctx":13107`), so OpenAI SDKs raised a type-validation error instead of the overflow 400 that opencode answers by compacting; the fix keeps a JSON body whole up to 4 KiB. — [source](https://api.github.com/repos/autonomous-ai/autonomous-grid/issues/118) - The same report found a server started without `--ctx-size` advertises no `context_window`, and reads `/props` `default_generation_settings.n_ctx` as the per-request window. — [source](https://api.github.com/repos/autonomous-ai/autonomous-grid/issues/118) - Skulk maps llama-server's `exceed_context_size_error` type, or a message naming the context size, to an API 400 `context_length_exceeded` by prefixing a sentinel to the message. — [source](https://api.github.com/repos/Foxlight-Foundation/Skulk/issues/1014) - zorp reads `n_ctx` and `n_prompt_tokens` from the body wherever they sit in nested or escaped JSON, also accepts "exceeds the available context size (N tokens)" and "maximum context length is N tokens", adopts the stated window, compacts and retries once. — [source](https://api.github.com/repos/aviskaar/zorp/issues/164) - claude-mem classifies vLLM's "maximum context length", llama.cpp's `exceed_context_size_error`, OpenAI's `context_length_exceeded` and HTTP 413 as context overflow and recycles the generation instead of finalising the session. — [source](https://api.github.com/repos/thedotmack/claude-mem/issues/4317) - pebble recognises llama.cpp, LM Studio and TGI wording and structured bodies (`exceed_context_size_error`, `context_length_exceeded`), compacts once and retries, and lowers its window to a reported `n_ctx`. — [source](https://api.github.com/repos/RinRin-32/pebble/issues/39) - The gateway protocol page says Claude Code reads `x-should-retry` (true marks a response retryable, false not) and `retry-after`, and asks gateways to forward error bodies unmodified so its recovery can match the upstream's wording. — [source](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/llm-gateway-protocol) - A server window under 100,000 cannot be matched with `CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW`, because Claude Code clamps it to at least 100,000, so for a 32K or 64K local slot a rewritten overflow error is the only automatic recovery. — [source](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/llm-gateway-connect) - Inferred rewrite recipe: match `error.type == "exceed_context_size_error"` on a 400, keep status 400, set message to `prompt is too long: tokens > maximum`, add no `x-should-retry: true`, pass every other error through whole, and never rewrite "Context size has been exceeded." — source: `asserted`