Background Agent Pings Skill for Claude

by parcadei

Background Agent Pings

331 tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

instructions only

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

3880

stars on the repo

on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/parcadei/Continuous-Claude-v3 --skill background-agent-pings

The instruction itself

6 sections, as written by the author

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 <id> 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/<type>/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/<id>.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

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How to use it

Copy the folder

Take parcadei/background-agent-pings from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.