CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_QUIET_BACKGROUND_WAIT

Updated October 31, 2026 by Alex Sorokoletov

CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_QUIET_BACKGROUND_WAIT is a Claude Code environment variable: When set, disables the quiet long background wait, so the session returns instead of entering a long sleep while background work is idle. Added in v2.1.311 and still present in v2.1.315. It is not in the official reference.

How to set it

For one session, export it in the shell that starts Claude Code:

export CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_QUIET_BACKGROUND_WAIT=<value>
claude

To apply it to every session, add it to the env object of a settings file:

// ~/.claude/settings.json
{
  "env": {
    "CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_QUIET_BACKGROUND_WAIT": "<value>"
  }
}

Related variables

• CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_BACKGROUND_TASKS: Disable background tasks entirely.
• CLAUDE_AUTO_BACKGROUND_TASKS: Enable automatic background task execution.
• CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_BACKGROUND_WORKER_CHECKIN_SECONDS: Sets how often, in seconds, a dispatched background worker reports progress ("still running", last tool call, minutes elapsed).
• CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_BG_EXIT_HANDOFF
• CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_BG_STABLE_PATH: On macOS, skips resolving a stable executable path for the background process and re-execs using the current executable path instead.
• CLAUDE_CODE_PRINT_BG_WAIT_CEILING_MS
• CLAUDE_CODE_RESUME_SESSIONSTART_HOOKS_WAIT_MS: Milliseconds that resuming a session waits for SessionStart hooks to finish before continuing; when unset, resume skips this timed wait.
• CLAUDE_BG_BACKEND: Set to "daemon" to route background work through a daemon backend.

Frequently asked questions

All variables, searchable: Claude Code environment variables.