REDDIT · REDDIT// 7d agoNEWS

Qwen3.5 `</think>` Bug Triggers Endless Loops

A SillyTavern user reports Qwen3.5 27B Q3_XS suddenly emitting empty `<think></think>` blocks and stray `</think>` tags, then spiraling into repetitive outputs until context runs out. Similar reports point to a template or reasoning-parser mismatch in the local stack, not just a sampling issue.

// ANALYSIS

This looks more like a chat-template regression than a model “going bad.”

–Qwen3.5 has a known edge case where disabling thinking can still leave a dangling `</think>` tag in the output
–If the backend strips or rewrites those tags between turns, the prompt can be reprocessed and the model starts echoing itself
–Old GGUF conversions or custom Jinja templates are prime suspects when tag handling drifts
–The fact that penalties, DRY, and prompt instructions did nothing points away from sampling and toward serialization/parsing
–For local RP setups, reasoning-tag hygiene is now part of the runtime contract, not just cosmetic output formatting

// TAGS

qwen3-5llmreasoningprompt-engineeringself-hosted

DISCOVERED

7d ago

2026-04-04

PUBLISHED

8d ago

2026-04-04

RELEVANCE

7/ 10

AUTHOR

VerdoneMangiasassi