diff --git a/core/jvm/src/main/scala/cats/effect/IOApp.scala b/core/jvm/src/main/scala/cats/effect/IOApp.scala
index 6f1a0857af5..5b69c0e61b1 100644
--- a/core/jvm/src/main/scala/cats/effect/IOApp.scala
+++ b/core/jvm/src/main/scala/cats/effect/IOApp.scala
@@ -314,6 +314,29 @@ trait IOApp {
   protected def onCpuStarvationWarn(metrics: CpuStarvationWarningMetrics): IO[Unit] =
     CpuStarvationCheck.logWarning(metrics)
 
+  /**
+   * Defines what to do when IOApp detects that `main` is being invoked on a `Thread` which
+   * isn't the main process thread. This condition can happen when we are running inside of an
+   * `sbt run` with `fork := false`
+   */
+  private def onNonMainThreadDetected(): Unit = {
+    val shouldPrint =
+      Option(System.getProperty("cats.effect.warnOnNonMainThreadDetected"))
+        .map(_.equalsIgnoreCase("true"))
+        .getOrElse(true)
+    if (shouldPrint)
+      System
+        .err
+        .println(
+          """|Warning: IOApp `main` is running on a thread other than the main thread.
+             |This may prevent correct resource cleanup after `main` completes.
+             |This condition could be caused by executing `sbt run` with `fork := false`.
+             |Set `Compile / run / fork := true` in this project to resolve this.
+             |""".stripMargin
+        )
+    else ()
+  }
+
   /**
    * The entry point for your application. Will be called by the runtime when the process is
    * started. If the underlying runtime supports it, any arguments passed to the process will be
@@ -333,6 +356,7 @@ trait IOApp {
   final def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
     // checked in openjdk 8-17; this attempts to detect when we're running under artificial environments, like sbt
     val isForked = Thread.currentThread().getId() == 1
+    if (!isForked) onNonMainThreadDetected()
 
     val installed = if (runtime == null) {
       import unsafe.IORuntime
diff --git a/docs/core/io-runtime-config.md b/docs/core/io-runtime-config.md
index 0a48199b48b..39828ad4293 100644
--- a/docs/core/io-runtime-config.md
+++ b/docs/core/io-runtime-config.md
@@ -28,7 +28,8 @@ This can be done for example with the [EnvironmentPlugin for Webpack](https://we
 | `cats.effect.detectBlockedThreads` <br/> N/A                                                      | `Boolean` (`false`) | Whether or not we should detect blocked threads. |
 | `cats.effect.logNonDaemonThreadsOnExit` <br/> N/A                                                 | `Boolean` (`true`) | Whether or not we should check for non-daemon threads on JVM exit.                                                                |
 | `cats.effect.logNonDaemonThreads.sleepIntervalMillis` <br/> N/A                                   | `Long` (`10000L`)  | Time to sleep between checking for presence of non-daemon threads.                                                                |
-| `cats.effect.cancelation.check.threshold ` <br/> `CATS_EFFECT_CANCELATION_CHECK_THRESHOLD`        | `Int` (`512`)      | Configure how often cancellation is checked. By default, every 512 iterations of the run loop.                                    |
+| `cats.effect.warnOnNonMainThreadDetected` <br/> N/A                                               | `Boolean` (`true`) | Print a warning message when IOApp `main` runs on a non-main thread                                                               |
+| `cats.effect.cancelation.check.threshold` <br/> `CATS_EFFECT_CANCELATION_CHECK_THRESHOLD`        | `Int` (`512`)      | Configure how often cancellation is checked. By default, every 512 iterations of the run loop.                                    |
 | `cats.effect.auto.yield.threshold.multiplier` <br/> `CATS_EFFECT_AUTO_YIELD_THRESHOLD_MULTIPLIER` | `Int` (`2`)        | `autoYieldThreshold = autoYieldThresholdMultiplier x cancelationCheckThreshold`. See [thread model](../thread-model.md).          |
 | `cats.effect.tracing.exceptions.enhanced` <br/> `CATS_EFFECT_TRACING_EXCEPTIONS_ENHANCED`         | `Boolean` (`true`) | Augment the stack traces of caught exceptions to include frames from the asynchronous stack traces. See [tracing](../tracing.md). |
 | `cats.effect.tracing.buffer.size` <br/> `CATS_EFFECT_TRACING_BUFFER_SIZE`                         | `Int` (`16`)       | Number of stack frames retained in the tracing buffer. Will be rounded up to next power of two.                                              |