| name | background-process |
| description | Housekeeping guide for background process tools. You SHOULD load this skill before launching background processes to avoid stale processes, port conflicts, and buffer issues.
Examples:
- user: "Start the dev server" → load skill, then launch with proper cleanup practices
- user: "Run npm run dev" → load skill to verify startup and use meaningful IDs
- user: "What background processes have we launched?" → check for duplicate processes, port conflicts |
Background Process Best Practices
Keep the Process List Clean
- Kill processes when done - don't leave stale servers running
- Use
background_process_cleanup periodically to remove exited processes
- Before launching, check
background_process_list to avoid duplicates
- Use
remove: true when killing to clean up in one step
Verify Startup
After launching, wait before reading output - servers need time to start:
- Launch the process
- Sleep at least 30 seconds (use bash
sleep or just wait before next action)
background_process_read to confirm startup- If output is empty or incomplete, wait longer and re-read
Look for: "listening on", "ready", "started" - or errors like port conflicts
Use Meaningful IDs
When running multiple processes, set custom id for clarity:
id: "frontend" and id: "backend" instead of vite-1, node-2- Makes kill/read commands unambiguous
When to Use Each Signal
| Signal | Use When |
|---|
| SIGTERM (default) | Normal shutdown - gives process time to cleanup |
| SIGINT | Simulate Ctrl+C - some processes handle this differently |
| SIGKILL | Process won't die with SIGTERM - force kill |
- Processes persist for the session - they don't auto-cleanup on conversation end
- Output buffer is limited (500 lines default) - increase
maxOutputLines for verbose builds
- stderr is prefixed with
[stderr] in output - helps distinguish errors
