Feature request: AZ5 emergency stop — immediately kill all running tasks and commands

Resolved 💬 1 comment Opened Jun 7, 2026 by elkton-gen Closed Jul 14, 2026

Summary

When working with Claude Code on time-sensitive or potentially destructive operations (file system changes, device syncs, network operations), there is currently no way to immediately halt ALL in-flight activity. The existing Ctrl+C interrupts the current prompt but does not kill background tasks that Claude has spawned.

Problem

Claude Code can have multiple background tasks running simultaneously (build jobs, SSH commands, file operations). When something goes wrong — disk filling up, an unauthorized write to a device, runaway commands — the user needs an immediate, unconditional stop of everything. "Stop" in the prompt doesn't reliably interrupt mid-flight tool calls.

Proposed solution

An AZ5 emergency stop: a single action (keyboard shortcut, dedicated button, or recognised command) that:

  1. Sends SIGKILL to every background task Claude has spawned
  2. Abandons any in-progress tool call mid-stroke
  3. Does not queue any further actions
  4. Acknowledges briefly ("Stopped.") then waits silently for further instruction

The name "AZ5" refers to the RBMK reactor emergency scram — the intent is the same: slam the control rods in as fast as physically possible, no questions asked.

Why this matters

A user working on embedded/IoT devices (flashing firmware, syncing root filesystems, filling disks) can cause irreversible hardware damage if Claude continues executing after being told to stop. The current behaviour of finishing the current action before stopping is unsafe in these contexts.

Suggested UX

  • CLI: a dedicated key binding (e.g. Ctrl+\ or Ctrl+X Ctrl+X) that triggers the emergency stop regardless of what is running
  • Acknowledgement: a single line "Stopped." with no further output until the user types again

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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