No Polling for Background Agents
When launching parallel background agents, do NOT poll with sleep loops.
Pattern
Background agents write to status files when complete. Wait for them naturally.
DO Launch agents with run_in_background: true Continue with other work while agents run Check status file only when user asks or when you need results to proceed Trust the agent completion system DON'T Run sleep 10 && cat status.txt in loops Continuously poll for completion Waste tokens checking status repeatedly Block on agents unless absolutely necessary When to Check Status User explicitly asks "are they done?" You need agent output to proceed with next task Significant time has passed and user is waiting Example // Launch agents Task({ ..., run_in_background: true }) Task({ ..., run_in_background: true })
// Continue with other work or conversation // Agents will write to status file when done
// Only check when needed cat .claude/cache/status.txt
Source
User feedback: "You can just wait until everyone pings you"