diff --git a/phone_agent/actions/handler.py b/phone_agent/actions/handler.py
index 0bef1c3a..5bb2d965 100644
--- a/phone_agent/actions/handler.py
+++ b/phone_agent/actions/handler.py
@@ -345,6 +345,12 @@ def parse_action(response: str) -> dict[str, Any]:
     print(f"Parsing action: {response}")
     try:
         response = response.strip()
+
+        # Clean up <answer> tags that may be in model output
+        response = response.replace('<answer>', '')
+        response = response.replace('</answer>', '')
+        response = response.strip()
+
         if response.startswith('do(action="Type"') or response.startswith(
             'do(action="Type_Name"'
         ):
diff --git a/tests/test_answer_tag_cleaning.py b/tests/test_answer_tag_cleaning.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..abdf7996
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_answer_tag_cleaning.py
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+"""Tests for answer tag cleaning in handler.py.
+
+This test verifies that parse_action properly cleans <answer> and </answer>
+tags from model output (Issue #258).
+"""
+
+import os
+import re
+import unittest
+
+
+class TestAnswerTagCleaning(unittest.TestCase):
+    """Test that handler.py cleans answer tags from model output."""
+
+    def test_handler_cleans_answer_tags(self):
+        """Verify handler.py removes <answer> and </answer> tags."""
+        handler_py_path = os.path.join(
+            os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__)),
+            'phone_agent', 'actions', 'handler.py'
+        )
+
+        with open(handler_py_path, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
+            content = f.read()
+
+        # Check for answer tag cleaning in parse_action function
+        self.assertIn("replace('<answer>', '')", content,
+                      "handler.py should remove <answer> tags")
+        self.assertIn("replace('</answer>', '')", content,
+                      "handler.py should remove </answer> tags")
+
+    def test_answer_tag_cleaning_uses_replace(self):
+        """Verify answer tag cleaning uses replace() instead of slice indexing."""
+        handler_py_path = os.path.join(
+            os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__)),
+            'phone_agent', 'actions', 'handler.py'
+        )
+
+        with open(handler_py_path, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
+            content = f.read()
+
+        # Find parse_action function content
+        parse_action_start = content.find('def parse_action')
+        self.assertNotEqual(parse_action_start, -1,
+                            "Could not find parse_action function")
+
+        # Get function body (until next def or end of file)
+        next_def = content.find('\ndef ', parse_action_start + 1)
+        if next_def == -1:
+            parse_action_body = content[parse_action_start:]
+        else:
+            parse_action_body = content[parse_action_start:next_def]
+
+        # Verify both tags are cleaned using replace
+        self.assertIn(".replace('<answer>', '')", parse_action_body,
+                      "Should use replace() for <answer> tag cleaning")
+        self.assertIn(".replace('</answer>', '')", parse_action_body,
+                      "Should use replace() for </answer> tag cleaning")
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    unittest.main()