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"