Background jobs - Tilt

A background job is work Tilt Agent does on its own while you keep using the chat. When the job ends, its result comes back to the chat that started it.

A chat with three running jobs: earnings recheck, news recheck, and analyst recheck, each with its current step and elapsed time. The title bar shows 3 running, and its open list repeats the three jobs above a Stop all button. — Three jobs running from one chat. The title bar shows how many run; select it to see each job and Stop all.

Start a job

Ask for the work to run in the background, and name each job so you can tell them apart:

In the background, start three jobs for AAPL, JPM, XOM, JNJ and NEE: earnings check finds each one’s latest quarterly results, news check finds the most recent headline for each, and analyst check finds the current consensus rating. Each reports back with a short table.

When you ask for background work, Tilt Agent starts a job. It can also start one on its own for a long task. Jobs run side by side, and you can keep asking questions while they work. A job keeps working after you close Tilt.

Follow a job

Where	What you see
The chat	A row with the job’s name, what it is doing, and how long it has worked.
The title bar	The job’s name. With several jobs, the count, such as 2 running, which opens a list of them.

Select the row, the name in the title bar, or a job in the list to open the job’s page. The page shows the instructions Tilt Agent gave the job and the job’s work as it happens. It has no message box: you talk to a job through the chat that started it.

Add work or stop a job

To	Do this
Give a running job more to do	Ask in the chat: “Tell news check to add MSFT.”
Stop one job	Select Stop at the top of the job’s page, or ask in the chat.
Stop every job	Open the list from the title bar, select Stop all, then select Stop all jobs? to confirm.
Stop Tilt Agent’s reply	Select Stop in the message box. Your background jobs keep running.

Read the result

When a job ends, the chat shows a note: news check finished, followed by the start of its answer, or news check failed with the reason. Select the note to open the job’s page and read the full answer. Tilt Agent can follow the note with a reply of its own, such as a summary table.

Choose a job, another chat, or an automation

Use	When you want
A background job	One piece of work done now, with the result back in this chat.
Another chat	Tilt Agent to hand work to a chat that keeps its own history. See Work across chats.
An automation	The same assignment repeated on a schedule. See Create an automation.