Terminals and the background process
How the background process runs every terminal and agent, keeps their screens, and keeps them running when the app closes.
Every terminal and agent runs in the background processThe hive process that keeps terminals and agents running while the app is closed or upgrading.Glossary →, not in the window. The window only shows them. So closing the app, or updating it, stops nothing unless you choose Stop everything as you quit.
Paste this into your coding agent to check the background process and what it runs.
Show the prompt
Check the Hivemind background process on this computer. Do not change anything. 1. Run `hive daemon status` and tell me whether it runs. 2. Run `hive ps` and list the sessions it keeps, with their folders. 3. If the app is open, run `hive ctl agents --json` and match each agent to its session. Tell me anything that runs with no tile, and any tile whose program has stopped. REFERENCE https://hivemind.griiken.com/guide/background-process.md
- Agent program → background process: what it prints. Your keys go the other way.
- Background process → desktop app: the output, live. The app draws it in the tile.
- Desktop app → background process: attach. The screen is replayed first, then output goes on live.
- Background process → saved screens: a copy of each screen on disk, kept 30 days.
What is kept
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| You quit (⌘Q on a Mac, Ctrl+Q elsewhere, or closing the last window) while something runs | The app asks: Keep them running, Stop everything or Cancel. With nothing running it quits at once. |
| You quit and choose Keep them running | Terminals and agents keep running. |
| You quit and choose Stop everything | The background process stops, as hive daemon stop does. Each session's screen is saved, and the next start brings it back: agents that can resume continue their conversation. Agents on other machines keep running. |
| The background process restarts, or the computer reboots | Agents that can resume continue their conversation; others start fresh. Screens replay from disk. |
| You close a tile (×) | Its program ends. |
| You put an agent to sleep | Its program ends. Its tile keeps its name and conversation, with Resume. |
Tick Don't ask again in that question to keep your choice. Change it back in
Settings → About and updates → When you quit while agents run. Quit and stop agents, in the
Open Recent menu (Ctrl+R), stops everything without asking. A quit started by an update, by
hive, or by any program rather than you never asks and stops nothing.
It also works out agent states
Each agent's hooks and screen reach the background process, which decides the agent's state. See Agent states.
Without the app
On a computer without the app, hive daemon start runs the same background process.
Machines and hosts use this.
Last validated for Hivemind 2026.10.3.