Long-Running Tasks
Some tasks take minutes, hours, or even days to complete. Long-running tasks require persistent state, progress checkpoints, and mechanisms for resuming after interruption.
6 min•By Priygop Team•Updated 2026
Long-Running Task Design
- Checkpoint after every completed subtask: save state so the agent can resume if interrupted
- Idempotent steps: design steps so they can be safely re-run if the agent restarts mid-task
- Progress reporting: send periodic updates to the user during long tasks
- Timeout handling: define a maximum duration for the full task and for each individual step
- Pause and resume: allow the task to be paused (for human input) and resumed
- Deadline enforcement: if the task will not complete by the deadline, notify the user and escalate
Key Takeaways
- Some tasks take minutes, hours, or even days to complete.
- Checkpoint after every completed subtask: save state so the agent can resume if interrupted
- Idempotent steps: design steps so they can be safely re-run if the agent restarts mid-task
- Progress reporting: send periodic updates to the user during long tasks