--- title: "Long tasks: say it once, it runs on its own" nav: Long tasks summary: Say "set up a weekly competitor brief" — your Agent checks what it can do, puts what is missing on one start card, you confirm once, and it runs and delivers on schedule. order: 23 --- # Long tasks: say it once, it runs on its own Some work repeats: a weekly look at competitors, a daily digest, a monthly reconciliation. With Agent J you say it once in chat — for example "set up a weekly competitor brief". Your Agent checks what it can already do, asks everything that is genuinely yours to decide on **one start card**, and after a single confirmation it runs and delivers on schedule. There is no new button. Everything starts with a sentence in chat. ## How it goes 1. **You say it.** "Every Monday at 9:00, a brief on three competitors from public sources." 2. **Your Agent checks itself.** Can it read public web pages, save files on this computer, reach your paired phone, which workflows exist already? Whatever it can check, it checks — without asking you. 3. **One start card.** At most five things that only you can decide (which three competitors, who receives it), on one card, together with what will be done, where it is delivered and when it runs. 4. **You tap Confirm and start.** For a new workflow or a weekly schedule, this one tap confirms the brief and turns the schedule on. 5. **It runs on its own.** After every run the workflow's CEO writes a report. Your Agent reads the report and checks the results before it tells you "done". ## What the start card shows - **What this does**: the goal, the deliverable (for example `reports/weekly.md`) and how often it runs. - **Your choices**: at most five — options to tap or a short answer. They are reused every time. - **Still to set up**: a site you have not signed in to, a service not saved yet. Nothing to type on the card: a key opens the dedicated secret card, and your Agent never sees the value. - **Optional**: things the task works without, such as a paid research service. Missing ones never block — your Agent uses free public sources instead. - **What Confirm and start means**: create the workflow from this brief, run it on schedule, reuse your choices. Confirming does **not** approve paying, deleting, sending anything outside, changing keys or changing prices: those still ask you on the phone, one by one. Sending the result to your own paired phone does not count as sending anything outside. Change something sends the card back and nothing starts — just say in chat what to change. A card is valid for about 30 minutes; when it expires nothing happens. ## "What can you do" Ask "what can you do" in chat and a capability page opens on your phone: what is ready, what needs setup, filterable, tap an item for details. Capabilities are re-checked automatically (web reading every 15 minutes, tools every 7 days) — a re-check never becomes a new question for you. The list also includes the dedicated browser and its configured sites, plus the Google tool. Site sign-ins expire after 15 minutes and a stopped browser is unavailable. Installing the Google tool does not authorize Google APIs; guided API authorization arrives in 0.18.1. ## When it still asks you - The five high-risk actions: paying, deleting, sending outside, key changes and price changes — every time, separately. - A decision or authorization that is genuinely missing, such as a site only you can sign in to. Only the part that depends on it waits; everything else continues, and the gap is reported in one go. - You changed the goal, deliverable or schedule. A small wording change does not ask again. ## Limits worth knowing - **The computer must be on and online.** A sleeping computer runs nothing, and your Agent will not pretend the cloud carries on. See [Keep the computer awake](/docs/keep-awake/). - **Connectors (MCP) are listed but never test-started**: starting a third-party program to test it is itself an action, so they show as "To check". - **An older phone page** cannot show the start card; it gets one line asking you to reload the page. ## After a host restart After a host restart, unfinished workflows show as interrupted and existing reports remain. Old runs and approvals are never replayed. If the old execution may still be active, check its reports and external effects, then have the owner enable the workflow again; a manual rerun gets a new run ID. Missed schedules still have no catch-up. ## Privacy The capability list, briefs, your choices and reports stay on this computer only — not in the account dashboard, not in the operator's database. Phone and computer talk end to end encrypted; the relay sees ciphertext only. ## For your Agent (command reference) The main Agent runs these through its built-in `agentj-capability` skill; you never type them: ```text agentj capability list|sync|check [--json] inventory / discover and check / re-check agentj capability show put "What my Agent can do" on the owner's phone agentj capability digest --dir brief digests and problems agentj capability prepare --workflow [--asks ] the start card (≤ 5 items) agentj capability result [--wait] agentj capability dispatch --workflow hand it to the workflow CEO (never twice) agentj capability report-check --dir --verdict ``` The brief is `brief.json` in the workflow folder (fixed fields); the CEO's report is `reports/report.json`. No report, unverified acceptance or an unreadable result is not done.