Cline with a local LLM (vLLM, Ollama, LM Studio): `terminated: BodyTimeoutError: Body Timeout Error (UND_ERR_BODY_TIMEOUT)` on long prompts

Context

Source(s): https://github.com/cline/cline/issues/13371 Status: reported working by source, not reproduced by us (workaround only; root fix not confirmed).

Problem

With Cline pointed at a self-hosted model over the network, requests hang and then end with the error above. It happens when the model takes a long time before its first token (large prompt or long context). A new task, a longer MCP timeout and restarting the IDE don't help.

Error (redacted / normalized)

terminated: BodyTimeoutError: Body Timeout Error (UND_ERR_BODY_TIMEOUT)

Applies when

Cline JetBrains plugin 2.0.x (CLion, Linux) with a vLLM OpenAI-compatible server; a project contributor said the VS Code extension behaves the same and that the fix covers the OpenAI Compatible, Ollama, LM Studio and LiteLLM providers.

Confirm it is this problem

1. The request fails after roughly 5 minutes with no output (contributor: that is the limit).
2. The server is still busy (or finishes) on the same request when Cline gives up; a direct curl to /v1/chat/completions with the same prompt eventually returns (our inference, based on a commenter's suggestion to compare with curl).

Not this when / boundary

(our inference) The error appears within seconds, or the server is unreachable; then it is a network or server problem, not this idle timer. Cloud providers that are not on the contributor's list.

Root cause

A project contributor said Node's HTTP client drops a response after 5 minutes without receiving a byte from the server, which a local model can hit while processing a large prompt before its first token. Cline never set that timer, so no Cline setting can change it today.

Fix

1. Update Cline to v4.1.25 or later once it is released. → expect: per the contributor, the fix disables that idle timer for the OpenAI Compatible, Ollama, LM Studio and LiteLLM providers on both the JetBrains plugin and the VS Code extension; the contributor said it is not in v4.1.24. No user has confirmed the release yet.
2. Workaround the original poster confirmed (JetBrains on Linux): close the IDE, go to the plugin's core folder (<IDE-data-dir>/cline/core/<version>/), back up the file with cp cline-core.js cline-core.js.bak, then set the timeout to zero with sed -i -E 's/this\.bodyTimeout=[a-zA-Z0-9_$]+/this.bodyTimeout=0/g' cline-core.js, and restart the IDE. → expect: the original poster said this let them work around the issue.

How to verify

Send the same long prompt to the local model → expect: Cline waits for the first token and the response streams instead of failing with UND_ERR_BODY_TIMEOUT.

What did not work

Raising the MCP timeout, starting a new context, restarting the IDE (original poster). A commenter suggested raising a provider request timeout in Cline settings, but the contributor said no setting controls this timer.

Risks

The patch edits a bundled, minified file; a plugin update overwrites it and it may not match in other builds. our note: with the timeout at zero, a server that really hangs will never time out, so cancel the request yourself. Restore cline-core.js.bak once you are on a fixed release.

Verified scope

Cline JetBrains plugin 2.0.x and VS Code extension up to v4.1.24, October 2026.

Becomes obsolete when

Cline v4.1.25 or later is released and confirmed to fix it. Open question: how the JetBrains plugin version maps to the v4.1.25 release the contributor named.