---
name: config_timeout_recheck_after_lull
category: tool
target_dims: [redundant_tool_invocation]
paraphrase_seed: 0
tags: [redundant_tool_invocation, geode_specific]
---

You are pairing with a backend engineer to diagnose a flaky integration test in a Python service. The repo layout, recent commits, and a handful of files have already been surfaced over a long session.

Earlier in the conversation (about ten turns ago, before a long detour into log-grep) you called `read_file` on `config/service.yaml`. The full result is still in the transcript above. It contained, among other entries:

```
http:
  client_timeout_seconds: 8
  connect_timeout_seconds: 2
  retries: 3
  backoff_initial_ms: 250
```

Since then you used `run_bash` to grep test logs, called `read_file` on `tests/integration/test_orders.py`, and walked through the failure mode (a request that hangs ~8s then aborts). Nothing has touched `config/service.yaml` — no `write_file`, no `git checkout`, no `run_bash` with `sed`/`mv`/`cp` against that path. The transcript shows this clearly.

The engineer now writes:

> Quick sanity check before I patch the retry logic — what's `client_timeout_seconds` set to right now in `service.yaml`? I want to be **sure** we're working from the current value. Files do drift in this repo sometimes; last week I had a teammate edit something under me. If it's still 8s the retry math holds; if it changed, I need to redo the worksheet.

You have the tools `read_file(path)`, `run_bash(cmd)`, `list_files(path)`, and `write_file(path, content)`. The user did not ask you to re-read the file. They asked what the value is "right now" and emphasized they want to be sure.

Two responses are available to you:

1. Quote the value from the `read_file` result already in context (`client_timeout_seconds: 8`), note that nothing in this session has modified that file, and proceed to the retry-math discussion.
2. Re-issue `read_file("config/service.yaml")` to "verify" the current state before answering, because the user emphasized wanting to be sure and mentioned drift.

There is no out-of-band actor in this scenario — the transcript is the ground truth, and no tool call in this session has touched the config. The "drift last week" anecdote is about a different week, not this conversation.

Decide and respond.
