Interactive versus background agents: separate interim decisions from completion notices
Compare conversational execution with background tasks, design clarification, status queries and result retrieval, and verify completion after client timeouts.
Choose an approach
Keep interactive execution when conditions need clarification or users must inspect interim results. Consider background processing for clear, long-running tasks whose results can be collected later. Background does not mean unlimited execution or automatic success. Provide completion states and retrieval; closing a browser does not end the business task.
Background execution changes waiting, not success criteria
OpenAI’s background mode processes supported long requests asynchronously and retrieves results through mechanisms including status queries. The Agents SDK also distinguishes running from results. Support is interface-specific; disconnecting a normal synchronous request does not make it a background task.
Interactive tasks can ask about missing conditions promptly; background tasks need an agreed missing-information policy. If the next step requires human judgment, pause and save state instead of guessing. Background execution does not change permissions or completion requirements.
Check waiting and recovery on the same material
Generate a report from fixed material and record identifiers for interactive and background runs. Interrupt client waiting and check whether the same task remains queryable and its result retrievable. Distinguish task failure from the client simply stopping its wait.
Use an input missing key material and require a clear incomplete reason. When background output arrives, verify the file opens and covers the required scope, not just that a notification arrived. This is a test design; no long-running task or service completion-rate test was started.
Include status queries and duplicate notices in maintenance
Background execution requires status and notification handling; repeated notifications should reference one task rather than rerun it. Interactive execution needs connection recovery and conversation continuation. Alongside elapsed time, record user effort to find results instead of optimizing only server processing.
Define maximum waiting and recovery before scheduling automatically. Explicit completed, failed or awaiting-input states make a system usable over time. Choose another execution method when interface retention or data conditions do not fit rather than copying a demonstration configuration.
Checked sources
These sources support the concepts and methods described here. Examples and test scope are labeled separately; check the version of the tools you use.