Group of 3 Under the hood
Claude Code now tracks whether a background agent's output file is still readable and changes its guidance accordingly
What
- A new
canReadOutputFileflag is now tracked on background/async agent launches, defaulting to true, and set explicitly in several agent dispatch and relaunch code paths. - Status and notification messages for a stopped or interrupted background agent now check this flag: when it's false, Claude Code tells you to resume the agent and ask it for a status report, instead of suggesting you check its worktree or output file for partial work.
- The message shown when a background agent from a previous session can't be restarted now also depends on this flag: if the output file can be read, it still suggests checking the worktree/output; if not, it suggests messaging the agent for a status report instead.
Why Not every background agent leaves behind a readable output file. This change makes the guidance Claude Code gives you match what's actually possible, instead of pointing you to a file you can't inspect.
Names in the bundlecanReadOutputFile
Documented inclaude-code/agent-sdk/python
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What situation would set canReadOutputFile to false is not stated.