[DOCS] `showTurnDuration` docs omit the background-agent/workflow waiting message and cumulative timing behavior

Documentation Type

Incorrect/outdated documentation

Documentation Location

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/settings

Section/Topic

showTurnDuration setting

Current Documentation

The docs currently say:

showTurnDuration | Show turn duration messages after responses, e.g. "Cooked for 1m 6s". Default: true. Appears in /config as Show turn duration

Related pages mention background work, but do not connect it to the post-response duration UI:

/tasks lists what's running in the background of the current session.

For long-running processes such as dev servers or watch builds, Claude can set run_in_background: true to start the command as a background task and continue working while it runs. List and stop background tasks with /tasks.

In the v2.1.152 changelog, the behavior is described more specifically:

The post-response timer now shows "Waiting for N background agents/workflows to finish" when backgrounded agents or workflows are still running, and reports the cumulative time once their results are processed

What's Wrong or Missing?

The showTurnDuration documentation is now incomplete for v2.1.152.

It still describes the post-response timer only as a simple duration message like "Cooked for 1m 6s", but the timer now has distinct behavior when backgrounded agents or workflows are still running:

A. Missing waiting-state message

The docs do not mention that the timer can switch to a waiting message of the form Waiting for N background agents/workflows to finish.

B. Missing cumulative-timing behavior

The docs do not explain that after those background results are processed, the timer reports the cumulative elapsed time rather than only the foreground response duration.

This leaves users without any explanation for a new post-response status they can see while using /tasks, background agents, or workflow-driven runs.

Suggested Improvement

Update the showTurnDuration entry in https://code.claude.com/docs/en/settings to describe both normal and background-work-in-progress behavior.

Possible wording:

Show post-response duration/status messages after responses. Normally this is a duration message such as "Cooked for 1m 6s". When background agents or workflows launched from the session are still running, Claude Code instead shows Waiting for N background agents/workflows to finish, then updates the message to the cumulative elapsed time once those results are processed. Default: true.

Optionally add a short cross-reference from the background-work docs to note that users may see this waiting message while work remains in flight.

Impact

Medium - Makes feature difficult to understand

Additional Context

Affected Pages:

| Page | Line(s) | Context |
|------|---------|---------|
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/settings | 241 | showTurnDuration only describes simple post-response duration messages |
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/commands | 23 | /tasks documents background work but not the related waiting-timer behavior |
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/tools-reference | 123 | Background Bash tasks are documented without noting the post-response waiting message |

Total scope: 3 pages affected

Behavior noted in changelog version v2.1.152.