What
A background agent is a helper task that Claude Code runs alongside your main conversation. You can resume one after it has stopped. Before, resuming only cleared the mark that said you had stopped it. Now, when you resume an agent that is in one of these states, Claude Code records the time it was revived:
- Stopped by you
- Killed
- Completed
- Failed
If the agent had finished, its finished mark is cleared. If the agent then fails to start again, Claude Code puts the finished mark back. Notices about resumed agents now also cover agents that had completed or failed, and not only ones that were stopped or killed.
Why
A completed or failed agent that you bring back is now saved as running again. It keeps that state across a restart and is no longer shown as finished.