What are Background Commands in Claude Code
Background commands in Claude Code allow you to run bash processes in the background using Ctrl-b, enabling Claude to continue working on other tasks while long-running processes execute. This feature was introduced in v1.0.71 to eliminate the need for managing development servers across multiple terminal instances or tabs, dramatically improving developer experience by allowing seamless process management from a single Claude Code session.
How to Use Background Commands
Claude Code's background command system transforms any bash command into a non-blocking background process. Instead of waiting for commands to complete, Claude can immediately continue with other work while processes run independently.
Traditional blocking command (Claude waits):
npm run dev
Background command (Claude continues working):
Press Ctrl+b when Claude suggests running a command:
npm run dev
Background processes continue running independently and need to be manually shut down when no longer needed. Use ps aux | grep node to find running processes and kill -9 <process_id> to terminate them.
You can ask Claude to shut down background processes for you: "Please stop the development server running in the background" and Claude will find and terminate the appropriate processes.
See Also: Bash Mode|Claude Code Changelog|Bash Scripts|Terminal Setup