---
name: bash-background-cap-is-ten-minutes-use-monitor
description: a `run_in_background` Bash poll loop is killed at the 10-minute tool cap however long its loop runs — a wait past ~10 min needs Monitor (up to 60 min) or the task's own completion notification
metadata:
  type: feedback
---

2026-09-06 23:35Z: armed a 25-minute `for … sleep 30` watcher on a CI job with `run_in_background`;
the tool's `timeout` maxes at 600000 ms, so the watcher would have died at ~10 min with the job still
running, and its exit reads like "watch ended" — the same shape as the job concluding. Replaced it with
`Monitor` (timeout_ms up to 3,600,000, emits on every terminal state), which delivered `WIN_JOB_DONE …
completed|success` at 14 min.

**Why:** a silent watcher death is indistinguishable from "still waiting"; the first symptom is a pacer
nudge long after the thing you waited on already happened.

**How to apply:** for a single wait longer than ~8 min, use Monitor with a terminal-state filter (every
outcome, not just success); for harness-tracked work, wait on its completion notification and set no
watcher at all. Kin: [[a-long-foreground-sleep-becomes-a-short-background-one]],
[[never-block-on-taskoutput-for-long-tasks]].