Background Agent Pings

Trust system reminders as agent progress notifications. Don't poll.

Pattern

When you launch a background agent, continue working on other tasks. The system will notify you via reminders when:

Agent makes progress: Agent progress: X new tools used, Y new tokens Agent writes output file (check the path you specified) DO 1. Task(run_in_background=true, prompt="... Output to: .claude/cache/agents//output.md") 2. Continue with next task immediately 3. When system reminder shows agent activity, check if output file exists 4. Read output file only when agent signals completion

DON'T

BAD: Polling wastes tokens and time

Task(run_in_background=true) Bash("sleep 5 && ls ...") # polling Bash("tail /tmp/claude/.../tasks/.output") # polling TaskOutput(task_id="...") # floods context

Why This Matters Polling burns tokens on repeated checks TaskOutput floods main context with full agent transcript System reminders are free - they're pushed to you automatically Continue productive work while waiting Source This session: Realized polling for agent output wasted time when system reminders already provide progress updates