diff --git a/website/docs/reference/cli-commands.md b/website/docs/reference/cli-commands.md
index ea3983ae75..68e911984e 100644
--- a/website/docs/reference/cli-commands.md
+++ b/website/docs/reference/cli-commands.md
@@ -802,8 +802,8 @@ The curator is an auxiliary-model background task that periodically reviews agen
 | Subcommand | Description |
 |------------|-------------|
 | `status` | Show curator status and skill stats |
-| `run` | Trigger a curator review now |
-| `run --sync` | Block until the LLM pass finishes |
+| `run` | Trigger a curator review now (blocks until the LLM pass finishes) |
+| `run --background` | Start the LLM pass in a background thread and return immediately |
 | `run --dry-run` | Preview only — produce the review report with no mutations |
 | `backup` | Take a manual tar.gz snapshot of `~/.hermes/skills/` (curator also snapshots automatically before every real run) |
 | `rollback` | Restore `~/.hermes/skills/` from a snapshot (defaults to newest) |
diff --git a/website/docs/user-guide/features/curator.md b/website/docs/user-guide/features/curator.md
index e53076b45e..0f43876d23 100644
--- a/website/docs/user-guide/features/curator.md
+++ b/website/docs/user-guide/features/curator.md
@@ -84,8 +84,8 @@ Earlier releases used a one-off `curator.auxiliary.{provider,model}` block. That
 
 ```bash
 hermes curator status         # last run, counts, pinned list, LRU top 5
-hermes curator run            # trigger a review now (background by default)
-hermes curator run --sync     # same, but block until the LLM pass finishes
+hermes curator run            # trigger a review now (blocks until the LLM pass finishes)
+hermes curator run --background  # fire-and-forget: start the LLM pass in a background thread
 hermes curator run --dry-run  # preview only — report without any mutations
 hermes curator backup         # take a manual snapshot of ~/.hermes/skills/
 hermes curator rollback       # restore from the newest snapshot