| name | janitor-keep-going |
| description | Control the janitor's never-stop continue-nudge for this session — every due heartbeat prints a resume cue telling the agent to keep working on its pending task instead of silently idling between turns. The nudge is ON BY DEFAULT (user directive 2026-07-16); this skill re-asserts it after an opt-out, or turns it off. Trigger with /janitor-keep-going, "keep going", "never stop", "don't stall between turns"; add "off" to disable this session's full-mode nudge. |
Janitor keep-going
Overview
Keep-going mode makes every due heartbeat fire emit a [janitor-resume] cue plus a short
"continue your pending task" nudge, so an unattended agent never silently stalls between turns.
As of the 2026-07-16 user directive this nudge is ON BY DEFAULT in every mode — the whole
point of the janitor is to keep the fleet working in the user's absence, and a FULL-mode
heartbeat that stayed silent (no rate-limit resume, no compact resume, no drift) let unattended
agents idle overnight. This skill's ON path re-asserts the default after an opt-out; its OFF path
writes the explicit opt-out sentinel that silences THIS session's full-mode nudge.
WHY it exists (TRDD-TKNSTP82 Part B, user 2026-07-02; DEFAULT-ON user 2026-07-16): "even in
maintenance mode the janitor must nudge the agent to continue … they must never stop." Maintenance
mode nudges unconditionally (see /janitor-maintenance-mode); full mode now nudges by default too,
without giving up detectors/daemon/drift reporting. The default is set by the keep_going_default
config knob (true); set it false to restore the pre-2026-07-16 opt-IN behaviour.
| trigger | scope | nudge fires when |
|---|
default (keep_going_default=true) | every armed session | every fire, unless opted out |
/janitor-maintenance-mode | this session (or global) | every fire, unconditionally |
/janitor-keep-going off | this session only | writes the opt-out that silences full-mode fires |
Prerequisites
$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR set (locates .janitor/state/).- The heartbeat is armed (
/janitor-arm) — keep-going governs what an ARMED fire prints; with
no cron there is nothing to nudge. With no cron it still records the flag so a later
/janitor-arm honors it.
Instructions
-
Parse the request into an action: contains "off" / "stop" / "disable" → action = OFF;
otherwise ON.
The nudge is ON BY DEFAULT (user directive 2026-07-16): every armed session
nudges in every mode unless explicitly turned off. So ON clears the opt-out sentinel,
and OFF writes it (removing the on-flag alone would not silence the default).
-
ON — clear the opt-out sentinel and (re)assert the on-flag atomically:
STATE_DIR="${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-$(pwd)}/.janitor/state"
mkdir -p "$STATE_DIR"
rm -f "$STATE_DIR/keep-going-off"
printf '%s' 'keep-going: never-stop continue-nudge active' > "$STATE_DIR/keep-going.tmp.$$"
mv -f "$STATE_DIR/keep-going.tmp.$$" "$STATE_DIR/keep-going"
OFF — write the explicit opt-out sentinel (the ONE lever that silences the
default full-mode nudge) and drop the on-flag:
STATE_DIR="${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-$(pwd)}/.janitor/state"
mkdir -p "$STATE_DIR"
rm -f "$STATE_DIR/keep-going"
printf '%s' 'keep-going-off: full-mode continue-nudge suppressed' > "$STATE_DIR/keep-going-off.tmp.$$"
mv -f "$STATE_DIR/keep-going-off.tmp.$$" "$STATE_DIR/keep-going-off"
OFF silences only FULL-mode fires — maintenance mode always nudges and is exited with
/janitor-maintenance-mode off.
-
Report one line:
- ON →
Janitor keep-going ON — every due heartbeat nudges you to continue your pending task (this is the default; the opt-out is cleared).
- OFF →
Janitor keep-going OFF — full-mode heartbeats stop emitting the continue-nudge (a deliberate opt-out; maintenance mode, if active, still nudges on its own).
- If the heartbeat is not armed, append
Note: heartbeat not armed; run /janitor-arm to start firing.
Output
One line. Side effect: writes/removes .janitor/state/keep-going. No cron change — arm/disarm
is separate.
Error handling
$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR unset → fall back to $(pwd) (dispatch resolves the same path).- Cannot create
$STATE_DIR (permission denied) → report Janitor keep-going failed: <error>.
Scope
ONLY sets/clears the keep-going flag for THIS session — unlike /janitor-maintenance-mode,
there is no global / fleet-wide variant. Does NOT arm/disarm the cron, run detectors, or
change any other config. To stop firing entirely, use /janitor-disarm; for a temporary
silence, /janitor-pause.
Resources
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/dispatch.py — _phase_keep_going_nudge(mode) emits the
[janitor-resume] + continue-nudge lines when this flag is present OR the session is in
maintenance mode; called from main() right before the maintenance early-return so both
modes get it.$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR/.janitor/state/keep-going — the per-session sentinel./janitor-maintenance-mode — the sibling that gets this same nudge unconditionally, as part
of its cache-refresh-only fires.
Checklist
Copy this checklist and track your progress:
