Polling Best Practices#

A guidance-style skill for automating long-running, asynchronous tasks using a cron-compatible polling pattern. When a task cannot complete synchronously (e.g., a CLI command that triggers a background job and returns a job ID), this skill guides the agent through: (1) deciding whether polling is appropriate, (2) pre-flight confirmation with the user, (3) setting up a task directory, (4) writing the polling script, (5) launching the background job, and (6) monitoring it to completion or timeout.

Language: All confirmation messages to the user should be written in the user's current language (check the session language — if the user is writing in Chinese, reply in Chinese; if in English, reply in English).

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1. Suitability Checklist#

Before proceeding, the agent must answer:

✅ Suitable for Polling — if ALL of the following are true:#

• The target command/API returns immediately with a process ID, job ID, artifact ID, or similar handle
• There is a clear, machine-parseable completion condition (e.g., a JSON/TOML field, a status string, an exit code, a file appearing)
• The condition can be checked by re-running the same command or a lightweight query command
• The wait time is predictable (typically 1–15 minutes)
• No real-time user interaction is needed during execution

❌ NOT Suitable — if ANY of the following are true:#

• The task requires complex LLM judgment to determine if it's "done" (e.g., "is this output good enough?")
• The task requires streaming or real-time output to be shown to the user
• The task outcome changes during polling based on intermediate results
• The completion condition is ambiguous or subjective
• The user wants to stop or redirect the task mid-execution

If the task is NOT suitable for polling, inform the user and propose an alternative approach (e.g., run synchronously, use a sub-agent with polling only for the final wait, etc.).

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2. Pre-Flight Confirmation (One-Time, All Parameters)#

Before starting any polling task, ask the user to confirm all parameters in a single message. This avoids back-and-forth and sets clear expectations.

Confirm in the user's current session language.

Example (English):

text

Before starting, please confirm the following:

① Polling target
  - Task: [brief description]
  - Command to check status: [exact command]
  - Expected completion condition: [e.g., output contains "status: completed"]

② Poll interval: every [X] minutes (default: 5 minutes)
③ Max duration: up to [Y] polls = [Z] minutes max (default: 40 min / 8 polls)
④ On completion: [download file / run command / send message / do nothing]
⑤ On failure/timeout: [notify me / stay silent]
⑥ Output directory: [path] (default: ~/Downloads or relevant workspace folder)
⑦ Temp folder retention: keep for review after completion? [yes / no]

Reply with any changes, or "ok" to proceed with defaults.

Example (Chinese — same structure, translated):

text

启动前请确认以下参数：

① 轮询对象
  - 任务：[简短描述]
  - 状态查询命令：[具体命令]
  - 成功判定条件：[例如输出包含 "status": "completed"]

② 轮询频率：每 [X] 分钟一次（默认：5 分钟）
③ 最长持续时间：最多 [Y] 次轮询 = [Z] 分钟（默认：40 分钟 / 8 次）
④ 完成后动作：[下载文件 / 运行命令 / 发消息 / 不做处理]
⑤ 失败/超时时：[通知我 / 不通知]
⑥ 产物保存位置：[路径]（默认：~/Downloads 或相关工作目录）
⑦ 临时文件夹保留：完成后保留供复查？[是 / 否]

直接回复修改项，或"确认"以默认参数启动。

Do not begin polling until the user confirms. If the user does not respond within a reasonable time, follow up once.

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3. Temp Folder Structure#

Every polling task gets its own temp folder. This makes the task self-contained, resumable, and easy to inspect or clean up later.

text

/tmp/<category>/                          ← category: e.g., notebooklm, deep-research, generic
  <YYMMDD-HHmm>_<sanitized-task-name>/  ← timestamped per-task folder
    task.json          ← task metadata and all parameters
    progress.json      ← current polling state (poll count, last check time, handles)
    poll.log           ← log of every poll attempt (timestamp + result)
    error.log          ← errors encountered
    done.flag          ← empty file, created on successful completion
    <output files>     ← any downloaded/generated artifacts

Naming rules:

• Category folder: lowercase, hyphenated, descriptive of the task type (e.g., notebooklm-audio, deep-research, generic-async)
• Task subfolder: YYMMDD-HHmm + _ + sanitized task name (spaces→hyphens, max 40 chars, strip special chars)

If a category folder doesn't exist yet, create it. If a task subfolder already exists (e.g., from a previous attempt), ask the user: "Resume the previous task or start fresh?"

task.json schema#

json

{
  "category": "notebooklm-audio",
  "task_name": "example-notebook-audio",
  "poll_command": "nlm studio status <notebook_id>",
  "parse_rule": {
    "type": "json",
    "path": ".[0].status",
    "success_value": "completed",
    "failure_value": "failed"
  },
  "on_complete_command": "nlm download audio <notebook_id> --id <artifact_id> -o <output_path>",
  "verify_output": true,
  "poll_interval_seconds": 300,
  "max_polls": 8,
  "timeout_action": "notify",
  "failure_action": "notify",
  "output_path": "/path/to/output.m4a",
  "temp_dir": "/tmp/notebooklm-audio/260325-1400_example-audio",
  "created_at": "2026-03-25T22:00:00Z",
  "user_confirmed": true
}

progress.json schema#

json

{
  "poll_count": 3,
  "last_poll_at": "2026-03-25T22:15:00Z",
  "last_poll_result": "in_progress",
  "artifact_id": "abc123...",
  "current_handle": "..."
}

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4. Writing the Polling Script#

Write the script to the task's temp folder ( <temp_dir>/poll.sh). The script must be self-contained — no external dependencies beyond standard Unix tools.

Required properties:

• set -euo pipefail at the top
• Check for done.flag at start — if it exists, exit 0 immediately (already done)
• On any error (auth expired, command failed, timeout), log to error.log and save progress before exiting
• Save progress.json after every poll attempt
• Append every poll result to poll.log (timestamp + truncated output)
• Never delete the temp folder — the user decides when to clean up

Script template (minimal):

bash

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

TASK_DIR="/tmp/category/YYMMDD-HHmm_taskname"
cd "$TASK_DIR"

# Check if already done
[[ -f done.flag ]] && echo "Already complete." && exit 0

# Load progress
POLL_COUNT=$(grep '"poll_count"' progress.json 2>/dev/null | sed 's/[^0-9]//g') || POLL_COUNT=0
MAX_POLLS=8
INTERVAL=300

while true; do
  POLL_COUNT=$((POLL_COUNT + 1))

  if [[ $POLL_COUNT -gt $MAX_POLLS ]]; then
    echo "[$(date)] TIMEOUT after $MAX_POLLS polls" >> error.log
    exit 1
  fi

  echo "[$(date)] Poll $POLL_COUNT/$MAX_POLLS" >> poll.log

  # Run the poll command
  RESULT=$(<poll_command> 2>&1) || true
  echo "$RESULT" >> poll.log

  # Parse result — adapt to your command's output format
  if echo "$RESULT" | grep -q '"status": "completed"'; then
    touch done.flag
    # Run on-complete command if set
    echo "Done." >> poll.log
    exit 0
  fi

  # Save progress
  sed -i "s/\"poll_count\": [0-9]*/\"poll_count\": $POLL_COUNT/" progress.json

  sleep "$INTERVAL"
done

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5. Launching and Monitoring#

Start the background job (the thing being polled)#

1. First, run the trigger command (e.g., nlm audio create <notebook_id>) to start the background task and capture its ID/handle.
2. Save the returned ID to progress.json and task.json.
3. Then launch the polling script as a background process.

bash

# In the task's temp dir:
nohup bash poll.sh > /dev/null 2>&1 &
echo "Polling started in background (PID: $!)"

The polling script should outlive the OpenClaw session. The agent should not need to stay alive for polling to continue.

Monitoring strategy#

• Do not poll from within the OpenClaw session (sub-agents or exec loops waste resources and complicate recovery).
• If OpenClaw receives a user message asking "is it done yet?", the agent can check done.flag or poll.log in the temp folder to answer without starting a new poll.
• If a new session starts and the user asks to check on a task, read progress.json to determine current status.

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6. Timeout and Error Handling#

SituationActionMax polls reached (timeout)Log to error.log, notify user (if timeout_action: notify), do NOT delete temp folderAuth expiredLog to error.log, notify user to re-authenticate, exitDownload/generation failedLog to error.log, notify user, exitTemp folder already exists (duplicate start)Ask user: resume or restart

After timeout/failure: Do not auto-retry. Tell the user the task did not complete and present options:

1. Re-run with the same parameters
2. Adjust parameters and re-run
3. Clean up the temp folder

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7. On Completion#

1. Verify the output file exists and has content ( [[ -s "$output_path" ]])
2. Create done.flag
3. If output_path is set and user confirmed a destination, move/copy the file there
4. Notify the user:
   • Task is complete
   • Where the output is saved
   • How many polls it took and how long
   • Temp folder path (for manual inspection if needed)
5. If user previously confirmed temp folder retention: leave the folder; if not, offer to clean up

Language for notification: Use the user's current session language.

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8. Template-Ready Tasks (Frequent Patterns)#

If the same type of task is performed frequently (e.g., NotebookLM audio generation, Gemini Deep Research status checks), extract the polling logic into a reusable script template stored in a category-level folder:

text

/tmp/notebooklm-audio/
  poll-template.sh        ← reusable template for this category
  /260325-1400_task1/    ← individual task folders use the template
  /260326-0915_task2/

The per-task poll.sh either copies from the template or is generated from it, keeping the per-task folder minimal.

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9. Summary Checklist#

Before launching a polling task, confirm ALL of:

• Task is suitable for polling (all suitability ✅)
• User confirmed all parameters in one message
• Temp folder created with correct task.json and progress.json
• Trigger command run, ID/handle captured
• poll.sh written and tested for syntax ( bash -n)
• Background process started with nohup
• User informed: task started, how to check status, what happens on completion