Agents & Automation
Long-Running Agent
Definition
An AI agent designed to work on an extended task across many steps, sessions, or context windows while maintaining progress.
Why it matters for your business
Large research and coding projects need checkpoints, clear completion criteria, and recovery from interruptions.
In practice
An agent works through a software migration over several sessions, saving completed changes and the remaining task list.
How it differs from related terms
Long-running describes the duration of a task. Always-on describes an ongoing availability or assignment that can include many separate tasks.