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Background Job Control

Run long commands in the background and monitor, read, and stop them safely.

Source Download skill
Repository
aden-hive/hive
Stars
11,132
Licence
Apache-2.0
Files
2 files

What it does

When this skill is installed, the agent knows how to start commands that take longer than a minute, keep them running while it does other work, and check their output in small pieces without losing or repeating lines. It also explains how to stop those jobs, with different steps on Linux/macOS and Windows, and warns that background jobs end if the Hive terminal tools server restarts.

Great for

  • Developers running builds, long test suites, or dev servers through an AI agent
  • Anyone whose agent auto-backgrounded a terminal command and needs to follow its output
  • Users who need to monitor a streaming log file while the agent keeps working

Skip it if

  • Permanent services or anything that must survive a restart: jobs die when the terminal-tools server restarts, and nohup does not prevent this, so a real service manager is needed
  • Quick one-off commands that finish in seconds: the plain terminal_exec tool is simpler
  • Environments where you cannot tolerate process termination: stopping jobs on Windows forcefully kills the process tree with no application cleanup

Try asking

  • “Start the full test suite in the background and tell me when it finishes”
  • “Run the dev server and show me the last 100 lines of its log”
  • “Tail the build output of job_xxx and stop it if it hangs”
  • “Send a graceful interrupt to the running migration job, then force-stop it if it does not exit”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Background Job ControlInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 2 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.

    terminal-tools-job-control.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip terminal-tools-job-control.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip terminal-tools-job-control.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Start with terminal_exec for short commands; only switch to this skill when a job runs long or auto-backgrounds.
  • Always pass next_offset back as since_offset on each poll, and watch truncated_bytes_dropped for gaps.
  • Call terminal_job_manage with action="capabilities" first, because supported signals differ between POSIX and Windows.

What's inside

  • references/signals.md
  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from aden-hive/hive under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.