CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_BACKGROUND_WORKER_CHECKIN_SECONDS
A Claude Code environment variable, read out of the shipped bundle. It was in the build from v2.1.248 and was gone by v2.1.283.
When CLAUDE_AUTO_BACKGROUND_TASKS is enabled, seconds between reminders to Claude to check on background subagents that are still running. Accepts a plain integer from 1 to 86400 only; any other value or spelling reads as unset. When unset, there are no check-in reminders. Requires Claude Code v2.1.248 or later
Anthropic's own wording. Read off Environment variables, captured 2026-09-26.
In the changelogs
1Releases whose published page names CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_BACKGROUND_WORKER_CHECKIN_SECONDS.
-
v2.1.283
Worker check-ins now follow a schedule set by CLAUDE_CODE_WORKER_CHECKIN_SCHEDULE
One schedule variable replaces the two single-interval check-in variables, and setting the old ones no longer changes anything
found in this entry's text
First cited
0No release's published evidence quotes this name. The ledger indexes the Evidence lines of every changelog on this site, so this says nobody here has ever quoted it; it says nothing about how old the name is.
Presence across releases
2Build by build
28One row per release since the first build this name was read out of. Absent means the build was read and the name was not in it, never mined means no bundle for that release was ever archived, and a declared type or a default is only ever what that release's own bundle stated.
Read out of the published npm bundle release by release, and out of Anthropic's own documentation as this site captured it. Nothing on this page is a description anybody here wrote about what the environment variable does. All environment variables.