fix: clear silence timer during active processing to prevent false 'Are you still there?'

[noanflaherty]

Summary

• Clear the silence timer at the start of runTurnInner() so it doesn't fire while the assistant is actively processing (LLM inference, tool calls)
• Restart the silence timer when the controller returns to idle state (normal completion, abort, error)
• Leave the timer cleared during waiting_on_user state (consultation timer handles that) and after END_CALL (call is ending)

Original prompt

Bug #3: Silence timeout fires while assistant is actively processing tool calls

Problem: During inbound voice calls, the 30-second silence timer (SILENCE_TIMEOUT_MS in call-constants.ts) fires and sends "Are you still there?" to the caller even when the assistant is actively processing their request (e.g. running LLM inference, executing tool calls like host_bash). The timer only resets on new caller utterances, not on assistant-side activity.

Evidence from logs: In call session ec8230b7, the caller said "Can you tell me how many files I have on my desktop?" at timestamp :65.824. The assistant began processing this request, which involved calling the LLM and then executing host_bash with ls ~/Desktop | wc -l. The host_bash tool permission request didn't fire until :25.871 (60 seconds later), and the tool execution + second LLM turn didn't complete until :28.117. Meanwhile, at :95.831 (exactly 30 seconds after the last caller utterance), the silence timer fired and sent "Are you still there?" even though the assistant was actively working on the caller's request.

Root cause: In assistant/src/calls/call-controller.ts, resetSilenceTimer() is called in handleCallerUtterance() and startInitialGreeting(), but NOT when the controller enters processing or speaking state. The silence timer continues counting down during LLM inference and tool execution. If the total processing time exceeds 30 seconds, the timer fires.

File to modify: assistant/src/calls/call-controller.ts

Fix: Clear the silence timer when entering runTurnInner() (i.e. when the assistant starts actively processing), and only restart it when the controller returns to idle state.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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[chatgpt-codex-connector]

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[devin-ai-integration]

Devin Review found 2 potential issues.

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[noanflaherty]

Addressed in #8639