# Background

A Claude contact can leave things running while it carries on: a **command** started in the background, such as a dev server or `gh run watch`, or a **watcher** that tells it whenever something happens. The **Background** tab lists them, with what each one printed, in the pane beside the conversation.

**Opening it.** Click **Background** in the toolbar, choose **File > View background tasks**, press ⇧⌘K (Ctrl+Shift+K on Linux and Windows), or click the **+** after the pane's last tab. A second click on the toolbar's button puts the tab away.

- The button wears the number of tasks that are running.
- In the conversation, the line _"Claude started `npm run dev` in the background"_ has a **View in Background** link. It goes to that task's row, and opens it.

**A row for every task.** The ones that run come first, in the order they started.

- **Under its name** it says that it runs, or how it ended: Claude's own words where it gave them, such as `completed (exit code 0)`. Next to its name are its kind, _Command_ or _Watcher_, and how long it has run.
- **Click a row** for what it runs and the end of what it printed. While it runs, that is read again every two seconds, and stays at the bottom unless you scroll up.
- **Stop** ends that one task. Claude is told, and carries on: the turn is not stopped.
- **A task that has ended stays listed**, under the ones that run, until you start a new conversation.

Good to know:

- **What runs in the background is not Claude at work.** The contact list shows the contact as Online, with "A command running in the background" under its name, and the status bar says the same: a dev server can run all day.
- **A watcher can wake Claude up.** When it reports something, Claude may answer without you sending anything, as it does when a subagent reports.
- What Claude leaves running ends with its Claude Code: when you quit the app, start a new conversation, or Claude switches accounts. It is then listed as stopped.
- Only the last 8 KB of what a task printed can be read: that is what Claude Code keeps of it.
- A task's output can't be read any more once its Claude Code has ended. What you read before then stays on show.
- [Subagents](subagents.md) are not listed here: they have a tab of their own.
- In a [group conversation](group-conversations.md), everyone's tasks are listed, each with whose it is.
- Codex, Gemini, OpenCode and Hermes don't say what they leave running, so their conversations have no **Background** button.
- In the [live demo](https://buddylist.dev/demo/) and in demo mode, a message with "background" in it has a Claude contact start a scripted dev server and a watcher on CI. The watcher ends after a few seconds; the dev server runs until you stop it.