Background Tasks

Grok can run commands, subagents, and monitors in the background while the conversation continues. Press Ctrl+B to open the tasks pane listing everything currently running, or run /tasks for a snapshot in the scrollback; press Ctrl+G to demote a running foreground command to the background instead of waiting for it.

The agent starts dev servers, builds, and other long-running commands as background tasks on its own, and collects their output when needed. Ask for it directly ("run the dev server in the background") or let the agent decide. In the scrollback, select a background task and press x to kill it.

/loop runs a prompt on a recurring interval:

/loop 5m Check if the test suite passes and report any failures

The interval accepts Ns (minimum 60), Nm, Nh, and Nd. The prompt fires immediately, then repeats; each firing is a new agent turn. Loops expire after 7 days, and at most 50 scheduled tasks can be active at once. Cancel from the tasks pane, or ask the agent to.

For real-time event streams rather than periodic checks, the agent can attach a monitor to a script: each line the script prints becomes a notification in the conversation. Ask for one when you want to watch a log, a CI run, or a port ("watch the deploy logs and tell me if anything errors"). Keep monitor scripts selective — every output line interrupts the conversation.

Prompts submitted while a turn is running are queued, not dropped. Ctrl+; toggles the queue panel and /queue lists it.