{"version":"2.1.296","anchor":"refusal-messages-for-background-agents","canonical_anchor":"refusal-messages-for-background-agents","heading":"Claude Code explains when background agents cannot start or resume","tier":"notice","area":"Background Agents","scope":"individual","heads_up":false,"url":"https:\/\/changelogs.core-directive.com\/v\/2.1.296\/e\/refusal-messages-for-background-agents","release_url":"https:\/\/changelogs.core-directive.com\/v\/2.1.296","markdown":"### Claude Code explains when background agents cannot start or resume\n\nClaude Code can tell you a background agent cannot start or resume in this session, and suggests the foreground or a new agent\n\n**Unclear.** What makes a session unable to run background agents, and whether that happens in normal use, is not stated.\n\n**What**\n\nA background agent is a helper agent that works while you keep using Claude Code. Claude Code has messages for when that cannot happen in the current session:\n\n- \"Background agents cannot be started in this session right now.\"\n\n- \"This agent cannot be resumed in the background in this session. Start a new agent instead.\"\n\nThe messages tell you to resend your message so the agent runs in the foreground, or to start a new agent.\n\n**Why**\n\nIn practice, a background agent that cannot run is not a dead end: you can run it in the foreground or start a fresh one.\n\n- Area: Background Agents\n- Tier: You'll notice\n- Useful: 2\/5\n- Signal: 2\/5\n- Scope: individual\n- Heads-up: no"}