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Community / AGENT SKILL
background-agents
0
This skill should be used when the user asks about "parallel agents", "background tasks", "run_in_background", "non-blocking agents", "check agent progress", "TaskOutput", "retrieve agent results", or discusses running multiple agents concurrently. Covers patterns for launching agents in background, monitoring progress, and retrieving results.
Understand the trade-offs.
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How clearly the skill guides your agent, how complete its workflow is, and how you can check the outcome.
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The full skill.
Original instructions from the publisher’s SKILL.md
# Background Agents - Non-Blocking Parallel Execution
Background agents let you continue working while long-running tasks execute.
Use `run_in_background: true` to launch agents that run without blocking.
## When to Use Background Agents
- Research phases with multiple independent agents
- Pre-commit reviews (code-simplifier + kieran reviewer)
- Any Task that takes >30 seconds and doesn't gate your immediate next step
## Launching Background Agents
Add `run_in_background: true` to Task calls:
```
Task(
subagent_type="compound-engineering:review:kieran-typescript-reviewer",
prompt="Review the changes in this PR",
max_turns: 20,
run_in_background: true
)
```
### Parallel Launch Pattern
Launch multiple agents in ONE message for true parallelism:
```
# Single message with multiple Task calls
Task 1: subagent_type="pr-review-toolkit:code-simplifier" (max_turns: 15, run_in_background: true)
Task 2: subagent_type="compound-engineering:review:kieran-typescript-reviewer" (max_turns: 20, run_in_background: true)
```
## Monitoring Progress
### Check All Tasks
- `/tasks` - List all background tasks with status
- `Ctrl+T` - Toggle task list view in terminal
### Check Specific Task
```
TaskOutput(task_id="task-abc123", block=false)
```
Returns current output without waiting for completion.
## Retrieving Results
### Wait for Completion
```
TaskOutput(task_id="task-abc123", block=true)
```
Blocks until agent completes, returns full output.
### Read Output File
Background agents write to output files. The path is returned when you launch:
```
Task returned: { task_id: "abc123", output_file: "/path/to/output.txt" }
```
Use `Read` tool on output_file path to check progress or results.
## Common Patterns
### Pre-Commit Reviews
```
# Launch both reviewers in parallel
Task(subagent_type="pr-review-toolkit:code-simplifier", run_in_background: true)
Task(subagent_type="compound-engineering:review:kieran-typescript-reviewer", run_in_background: true)
# Continue polishing code while they run...
# Check progress
/tasks
# Retrieve results when ready
TaskOutput(task_id="...", block=true)
```
### Research Phase
```
# Launch all research agents
Task(subagent_type="somto-dev-toolkit:prd-codebase-researcher", run_in_background: true)
Task(subagent_type="compound-engineering:research:git-history-analyzer", run_in_background: true)
Task(subagent_type="somto-dev-toolkit:prd-external-researcher", run_in_background: true)
# Continue interview prep while research runs...
# Retrieve all results
TaskOutput(task_id="task-1", block=true)
TaskOutput(task_id="task-2", block=true)
TaskOutput(task_id="task-3", block=true)
```
## When NOT to Background
- **Complexity estimator** (Phase 5.5) - Need result immediately for next phase
- **Any agent whose output gates the next step** - Must wait for result
- **Quick agents** (<10 seconds) - Overhead not worth it
## Kieran Reviewers by Language
| Language | Agent |
|----------|-------|
| TypeScript/JavaScript | `compound-engineering:review:kieran-typescript-reviewer` |
| Python | `compound-engineering:review:kieran-python-reviewer` |
| Ruby/Rails | `compound-engineering:review:kieran-rails-reviewer` |
### Domain-Specific Reviewers
| Domain | Agent |
|--------|-------|
| Database/migrations | `compound-engineering:review:data-integrity-guardian` |
| Frontend races | `compound-engineering:review:julik-frontend-races-reviewer` |