Move Long-Running Work to the Background

When Claude is working on a long task, you don’t have to wait. Push it to the background and keep working.

How It Works

1. Start a task normally
2. Press Ctrl+B to move it to the background
3. Continue working in the same session or start new tasks
4. Check on background work with /tasks

> Refactor the entire auth module to use the new middleware pattern

[Claude starts working...]

# Press Ctrl+B — Claude continues in the background

> /tasks
# Shows: "auth refactor" — running (47% context used)

Append “Use Subagents” for Extra Compute

When you want Claude to parallelize work without managing it yourself:

Refactor all API endpoints to use the new error handling pattern.
Use subagents for each module.

Claude spawns independent subagents, each working in its own context. The main agent coordinates and merges results.

Tips

• Background tasks share the same git state, so use worktrees if tasks might conflict
• You’ll get notified when a background task completes or needs input
• Use /tasks to monitor progress and context usage
• Kill stuck tasks from the /tasks interface