How do I install the Background Worker skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add ariana-dot-dev/background-worker in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Background Worker safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Background Worker?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Background Worker free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Background Worker?

ariana-dot-dev (@ariana-dot-dev) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Background Worker by ariana-dot-dev

Name: Background Worker
Author: ariana-dot-dev

Background Worker

Run a long-lived or 24-7 background worker in a cloud VM that won't auto-stop — queue workers, schedulers, bots, crawlers, or persistent agent loops. Disable auto-stop or set a TTL up to 30 days; the VM keeps its disk and IPv4 and resumes after a stop. Per-second flat pricing, ~10x cheaper than ephemeral sandboxes for steady-state work.

File contents

Background / 24-7 worker (Box)

Use this when work must keep running unattended: a queue worker, a Telegram/Discord bot, a polling agent, a scheduled scraper, or any always-on service. Ephemeral sandboxes (E2B microVMs, Codespaces) auto-die on a timer — wrong tool. A Box can be told to never auto-stop, persists its disk, and keeps a dedicated IPv4.

Why Box

No session cap — runs hours/days/indefinitely.
Persistent + resumable — disk survives stop; box resume brings it back.
Cheap steady-state — flat per-second pricing beats ephemeral providers (50 always-on VMs ≈ $432/mo vs ~$4k+).

Prereqs

curl -fsSL https://box.ascii.dev/install | sh, then box login "$BOX_API_KEY" --json.

Recipe

box_id="$(box new --no-auto-stop --json | jq -r 'select(.event == "ready") | .id')"
box ssh "$box_id" -- bash -s < ./setup.sh
box ssh "$box_id" -- "cd /app && nohup ./worker.sh > /var/log/worker.log 2>&1 &"
box extend "$box_id" --ttl 2592000                 # optional: 30-day deadline

Survival rules

Running processes do not survive stop/resume or fork — only the disk does. Make startup idempotent and relaunch after resume; use a process manager (systemd, pm2, nohup).

Limits

EU-only; disk-level snapshots; 100 active VMs soft cap; max 30-day TTL per extension (re-extend as needed).

Frequently asked questions