No Polling for Background Agents

Pattern

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

1. User explicitly asks "are they done?"
2. You need agent output to proceed with next task
3. 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