[DOCS] [Dynamic workflows] `/workflows` command docs don't state it opens immediately even while a turn is in progress

Documentation Type

Missing documentation (feature not documented)

Documentation Location

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

Section/Topic

The "Watch the run" section and the description of the /workflows command in the commands table on the workflows guide, plus the corresponding row in the slash-command table on the commands reference page.

Current Documentation

The workflows guide (docs/code.claude.com/docs/en/workflows.md) says under "Watch the run" (line 91):

Workflows run in the background, so the session stays responsive while agents work. Run /workflows at any time to list running and completed workflows, then select one to open its progress view.

The slash-command table (docs/code.claude.com/docs/en/commands.md line 143) describes /workflows as:

Open the workflow progress view to watch, pause, resume, or save running and completed workflows

Neither location states that the progress view is now guaranteed to open immediately even when the user's main turn is still in progress.

What's Wrong or Missing?

As of v2.1.169, the changelog entry for this version documents a behavior change: "/workflows now opens immediately even while a turn is in progress". Prior to this fix, invoking /workflows while a turn was active was either delayed or blocked until the turn finished, which was surprising for users trying to monitor their own running workflow or check on agents that the active turn was orchestrating.

The user-facing documentation on the workflows guide never calls out this behavior. The "Watch the run" section says you can run /workflows "at any time", but that wording is ambiguous: a user reading the page cannot tell whether "at any time" means "at any time you can run a workflow" (i.e., between turns) or "at any time during the session, including while a turn is in progress". The slash-command description is even less explicit, just listing what the view can do.

The consequence is that the v2.1.169 fix is invisible to users: someone reading the page today learns only by hitting the prior bug, not from the docs. The two natural places to document this — the "Watch the run" section and the /workflows row of the slash-command table — both omit the new "opens immediately even during an in-progress turn" guarantee.

Suggested Improvement

In the "Watch the run" section of the workflows guide, expand the existing sentence to call out the new behavior explicitly. For example:

After:

Workflows run in the background, so the session stays responsive while agents work. Run /workflows at any time to list running and completed workflows, then select one to open its progress view. The progress view opens immediately, even while a turn in your session is still in progress, so you can monitor a run without waiting for the current response to finish.

In the slash-command table on commands.md, extend the /workflows row description similarly. For example:

After:

Open the workflow progress view to watch, pause, resume, or save running and completed workflows. The view opens immediately even while a turn is still in progress.

If the team prefers to keep the slash-command table terse, an alternative is to add a one-line callout in the "Watch the run" section that mentions the v2.1.169 behavior, since that is the section most likely to be consulted by a user who actually wants to monitor a running workflow.

Impact

Medium - Makes feature difficult to understand

Additional Context

Affected Pages:
| Page | Line(s) | Context |
|------|---------|---------|
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/workflows | 91 | "Watch the run" section describes when to run /workflows |
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/commands | 143 | /workflows row in the slash-command reference table |
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/changelog | 31 | v2.1.169 entry: "/workflows now opens immediately even while a turn is in progress" |

Total scope: 2 documentation pages affected (plus the changelog entry that already describes the fix).

Version: Behavior introduced in v2.1.169 (June 8, 2026). The previous behavior — opening /workflows being blocked or delayed while a turn was in progress — is no longer the case, but the user-facing pages have not been updated to reflect this.