Agent pause

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What it does

Puts ONE agent to sleep while the rest of the project keeps working: its colleagues, their scheduled tasks and agent mail go on. Made for a specialist that waits for hours (a marketing agent waiting for the developers). A quick pause stops it at the end of its turn and wakes it on the same conversation; a long pause first has it write a resume summary and wakes it on a NEW conversation from that summary, so its long context is not reloaded. It can also summarise and pause itself automatically after a few idle minutes.

Where to find it

Right-click the agent in the project's agent list > Pause this agent: Quick pause, Long pause (only while its console is open), and the Summarise and pause after inactivity group (Off, 4 min, 15 min, 30 min, 55 min). A sleeping agent shows a Paused badge next to its name; hover it to see how it will wake.

How to use it

  1. Right-click the agent > Pause this agent > Long pause.
  2. The badge reads "Writing its resume summary", then Paused: the console closes.
  3. It wakes by itself when something needs it: a message from another agent, a scheduled task or trigger aimed at it, an MCP call (agents_resume), or you opening it. App restart, opening the project and the project's default agent leave it asleep.

Automatic pause: pick a delay in Summarise and pause after inactivity. Once the agent has been idle that long since its last turn ended, it writes its summary and goes to sleep (long pause), usually while the provider's prompt cache is still warm. AgentsRoom cannot read how long that cache lasts (it depends on the provider), so choose the delay yourself.

If the summary is not captured, the badge reads "Not paused" with the reason, the console stays open, and a click on the badge hides the report.

Settings

  • autoPauseMinutes (agent scope, settings_set / agents_save; UI: right-click the agent > Pause this agent > Summarise and pause after inactivity): summarise and pause after this many idle minutes, 1 to 240 (the app offers 4, 15, 30, 55). null = off, the default. Stored on the agent and synced with your account.
  • The sleeping state and its summary are stored on the agent itself, synced too: another computer of the account wakes it the same way.

Agent tools (MCP)

  • settings_set with scope: "agent", key autoPauseMinutes, or agents_save with autoPauseMinutes: switch the automatic pause on, change or clear it.
  • agents_resume and agents_send (agent mail) wake a sleeping agent, from its summary after a long pause. No tool pauses an agent by itself in this version.

Providers

All providers: the request is plain text and the summary is a file the agent writes. Waking on the same conversation (quick pause) needs a provider that supports resume; a long pause works with every provider.

Mobile

Same entry on the phone: long-press the agent > Pause this agent (quick, long, automatic delay), and the same Paused badge on its row. The desktop runs the pause.

Limits

  • Resume of a paused project does not wake an agent paused on its own.
  • A project pause has priority: while the project is paused, nothing wakes the sleeping agent (no message, no scheduled task).
  • The automatic pause never fires while the agent waits for your answer, while you are typing to it, with messages queued for it, during a team run, for the personal assistant, while the project is paused, or for an agent over SSH (greyed out: the summary would stay on the remote host). After a failed attempt it waits for the agent's next turn.
  • Agents of a running team cannot be paused on their own: the run owns their console.
  • A message wakes it even when A message may start the recipient is off, but not when inter-agent messaging itself is off, nor while its project is closed (not in the row of opened projects): the message then waits.

Common questions

  • Can I pause just one agent and keep the others working? Yes: right-click it > Pause this agent. The rest of the project keeps running.
  • Can an idle agent summarise itself before the model cache expires? Yes: Pause this agent > Summarise and pause after inactivity, then pick 4, 15, 30 or 55 minutes, a bit under your provider's cache length.
  • How do I wake it? Open it, or let a message from another agent or a scheduled task reach it: it comes back from its summary.
  • Why did Resume project not wake my agent? It was paused on its own: it wakes when you open it, or when a message or a scheduled task needs it.
  • Does it cost tokens while asleep? No: its console is closed. Waking from a long pause loads only the summary, not the whole previous conversation.

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