You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
3Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
2Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
Background TasksArea: what it touches
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.314,
ImprovementsSection of the release
What
A background command is a shell command left running while Claude carries on with other work. Claude Code now keeps checking the output of these commands. If the output stops growing and its last lines look like a question waiting for an answer, the command is marked as stalled, and the list of background commands shows those last lines.
Claude is told the command is likely blocked on an interactive prompt, and is advised to run it again with its input piped in or with an option that stops it asking questions.
A command that is already running can also now be moved into the background, and Claude Code now records what caused a background command to finish: you, a message being delivered, a timeout, or an explicit stop.
Why
A command waiting for an answer nobody will type can hang forever. Claude now sees this happening and can rerun the command in a way that does not stop to ask.
