Background runs let you delegate a task to a separate session. The run persists even if you close, hide, or reload the panel. When it finishes, the output appears as a draft in your composer.
Explain how auth refresh works
refresh() in src/auth/session.ts rotates the token pair 60 seconds before expiry.
session.tslines 41-42
41if (expiresAt - now() < 60_000)42 return rotate(tokens)
Find and fix the failing test
Background tasks
RunningAdd input validation to the signup formgeneral · write allowed
Read SignupForm.tsx, validate.ts
Developers juggling multiple tasks who want to delegate work without blocking their main conversation.
Test writing, refactors and migrations run in their own session while you keep chatting.
Ask a quick question or start something new while a run keeps working.
Results land as a draft in your composer, so you edit before anything is sent.
Start a run from the composer, let it work in its own session, and pick up the result as a draft whenever you come back to the panel.
Delegated from the composer
Send the task to a background run and it opens its own session with its own context. Your main conversation stays open for questions, reviews or a second task.
Still writing after you reloaded the panel
The run lives in its own session, so closing, hiding or reloading the panel leaves it running. Open the panel again and you can see where it got to.
orders.tsOpen
“Fix whatever the tests catch”
take: limit + 1,
const rows = await db.orders.find({
Waiting for a reviewerReview
A fix found during the run
The general subagent writes the change and runs the tests inside the background session. What reaches you is a single diff you can read before anything merges.
“Write up the PR summary”
Send this summary as your next message?
Send it as is
Waiting for your approval
Output lands as a draft you can edit
When the run finishes, its output arrives as a draft in your composer. Read it, edit it or send it on, in your own time.
· InlineAdd pagination tests for /orders
Writing tests for orders.ts
Answering other questions
· Main sessionQuick question, what does rotate.ts do?
It issues a new refresh token and revokes the old one
A long job holds up the conversation. You wait for it to finish before asking anything else, and a panel reload can cost you the context you built up.
The job gets its own session and you keep talking in the main one. Close or reload the panel and the run carries on, and the result shows up as a draft when it is done.
A background run moves through four stages, and you can step away at any of them without losing the work.
· New background runA new session opens for this job alone
· Main sessionQuick question, what does rotate.ts do?
It issues a new refresh token and revokes the old one
· Main sessionPanel reloaded
Wrote orders.test.ts
Running the tests
· Main sessionNothing is sent until you send it
· New background runA new session opens for this job alone
What to know before you hand a job to a background run.
What goes wrong
How handles it
When a run is tied to the panel, a reload or a closed window ends it, and whatever progress it made goes with it.
How handles it
The job runs in its own session, so the panel can close, hide or reload and the run keeps going until it finishes.
A big test-writing job running inline means you sit and wait, with no way to ask a quick question or start something else.
How handles it
The background run takes the job off the main session, so the conversation in front of you stays free for anything else.
Output posted straight into the chat is hard to trim or correct before it goes further, for example into a PR description.
How handles it
Output arrives as a draft in your composer, so you decide what to keep, change or send.
SettingsAgents
Pick a subagent and it stays selected until you swap it. Only general carries out changes end to end.
@explore · Where is the refresh token rotated?
› Searched refreshToken · 14 matches
› Read src/auth/session.ts, src/auth/rotate.ts
› Answered · 0 files changed
@exploreAsk ML.ai... @ to delegate
Searched getUser9 matches
Edited 4 files+12 −12
Ran pnpm test48 passed
Inside the project only · back to you after one turn
Edits and commands, inside the project
Found the refresh path. Updating the session helper now.
GreprefreshToken · 6 matches in app/auth
Fs.readapp/auth/session.ts
Fs.writeapp/auth/session.tspending
app/auth/session.ts2 lines changedlines 42-50
42export async function refresh(token) {
43 if (!token) return null;
44 if (!token?.exp) throw new Error('expired');
45 return await rotate(token);
46}
47
48async function rotate(token) {
49 const next = await issue(token.sub);
50 return next;
12@@ -12,3 +12,3 @@ export type Invoice
13- userId: string;
13+ accountId: string;
14 amount: number;
Three answers on every prompt
How Allow, Always and Deny work for every edit and command, including the ones a background run makes.
Yes. Edits from a background run go through the same Allow, Always or Deny prompt as your main session, with the real diff shown first, so nothing lands on disk without your say.
You pick the delegate when you start the run, and each option states up front whether it can write, so you choose the blast radius before committing. Only general carries out changes end to end; explore and architect read and plan without editing anything.
It drops into your composer as a draft. Nothing is sent on your behalf: you still review it and send it yourself, or dismiss it.
Start a background run from the composer, keep working in your main session, and pick up the result as a draft.
