Unclear Which setting turns on the hold for background commands, and whether it is on by default, is not stated.
Print mode (claude -p) runs one prompt and exits, which is how scripts often use Claude Code. Background shells are commands Claude started that keep running while it does other things. Print mode already stopped waiting for them after a time limit set by CLAUDE_CODE_PRINT_BG_WAIT_CEILING_MS.
What changed:
- When input has closed and no maximum budget is set, print mode can now hold on for background shells instead of stopping when the time limit passes.
- A scheduled wake-up for the session also keeps print mode running.
- The warning printed when it gives up used to say only how many seconds had passed. It now includes the time and a summary of the tasks still running, and says: "Set CLAUDE_CODE_PRINT_BG_WAIT_CEILING_MS=0 to wait indefinitely."
Scripts that call claude -p may now take longer to finish while background commands complete. When it does give up, the warning shows what was still running and how to make it wait without a limit.
tengu_giggly_dragonfly Not enough to sayNothing here resolved what this flag was doing on this version, so nothing here should be read as on or off.
This account: no value returned · anonymous baseline: no value returned · compiled default in v2.1.292: on
These values were read against a different version of Claude Code, so treat them as the nearest reading available instead of one taken on this release.
tengu_print_ceiling_stop_agents Not enough to sayNothing here resolved what this flag was doing on this version, so nothing here should be read as on or off.
This account: no value returned · anonymous baseline: no value returned · compiled default in v2.1.292: on
These values were read against a different version of Claude Code, so treat them as the nearest reading available instead of one taken on this release.
Read once, for one account on one subscription tier, against v2.1.292. It isn't a statement about your account. What a flag value here can and cannot tell you
The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.
Unless a background command that the main conversation started is still running, Claude Code stops whatever is still running after 10 minutes of continuous idle waiting by default and drops its partial result. To change the 10-minute cap, …headless see the edit
Which setting turns on the hold for background commands, and whether it is on by default, is not stated.
Anthropic's documentation has since written up CLAUDE_CODE_PRINT_BG_WAIT_CEILING_MS, on Run Claude Code programmatically.
Fixed one-shot claude -p and Agent SDK runs stopping a background command 5 seconds after the final result, and one-shot claude -p runs…