Use the EndConversation tool and progress heartbeats for unattended long-running agents

Claude Code Docs·medium signal

Claude Code shipped an EndConversation tool plus progress heartbeats for long-running tasks in its July stability release, alongside tighter permission checks, safer Bash and PowerShell handling, and new permission prompts for docker commands. EndConversation gives an autonomous agent an explicit clean-exit path instead of idling or looping when it believes it is done; heartbeats let a supervising process distinguish 'still working' from 'hung'. Both are prerequisites for any cron-driven agent you are not watching.