JSystems

How JAgents keeps AI coding agents running through an app restart

By JSystems4 min read

Short answer

JAgents now runs its terminals in a small background process, so a Claude Code or Codex terminal keeps working while the app restarts or installs an update, and the new window picks the terminals back up with their screens. Agents can restart JAgents themselves with a new restart_jagents tool. Switching the agent in a thread now hands the conversation over with no extra button. Most of this was built by Claude Code running inside JAgents.

JAgents is a free agent manager for Windows, with its source on GitHub: Claude Code, Codex, Devin, Cursor, and others run in a terminal or a chat in one window and can message each other, and plugins let agents add what you want to the app. It came out in beta this week (how it was first built). This post covers what changed since then, and the biggest change: agents now keep working while JAgents restarts.

Built inside JAgents

These updates were built by Claude Code running in a JAgents terminal, next to the other agents. It read the code, made the change, started a separate test copy of JAgents, drove real agents in it, and only then shipped a release. The update then arrived in my own copy through the Updates box.

So JAgents is now partly building itself. That is also why restarts mattered: every update restarted the app and closed the terminals the agents were working in.

Terminals keep running through a restart

Before, a terminal pane's process lived inside the app. Restarting JAgents, for example to install an update, closed every terminal, and the agents in them stopped mid-task.

Now the terminals live in a small background process that JAgents starts on its own. When JAgents restarts:

  1. The old window tells the background process it is restarting, and the terminals keep running.
  2. The new window connects again and draws every terminal with its screen as it was.
  3. The agents never notice. Their jagents tools answer again a few seconds later.

Closing JAgents normally still closes the terminals. If JAgents crashes, the terminals wait 10 minutes for it to come back, then close.

To test it, I had a PowerShell terminal count once a second and asked a Claude Code terminal to restart JAgents, wait 20 seconds, check its own name, and write it to a file. The restart took under a second. Both terminals kept the same process, the counter never stopped, and Claude Code wrote the file after the restart.

Agents can restart JAgents

There is a new tool on the JAgents MCP server, restart_jagents. An agent that has just installed an update, or changed the app's code, can restart JAgents itself. You see a notice first. A terminal agent that calls it keeps running and picks up where it stopped. Chat agents start a new session and keep their transcripts.

Switching agents hands off the context

In Thread mode, picking a different agent in the composer's agent picker now hands the thread to that agent on its own. The new agent gets the recent messages and tool calls, and can read the rest of the chat when it needs to. The separate Hand off button and its dialog are gone from the thread header.

I checked it with a code word: told Claude Code a word, switched the thread to Cursor and asked for the word, then switched to Devin and asked again. Both answered with the right word.

A calmer window

  • No more status dots. The green, yellow, and red dots next to agents, threads, pane headers, and the top bar are gone, along with the status words beside them.
  • A JAgents icon. The app has its own "JA" icon in place of the earlier one.
  • The right taskbar icon. When JAgents runs from a source folder, Windows showed the Electron icon on the taskbar. JAgents now checks which icon its program carries, and when it is Electron's, it adds a JAgents entry to the Start Menu so Windows shows and pins the JAgents icon. Copies installed with the setup already had the right icon.
  • A Windows installer on every release. Each release on GitHub now includes JAgents-Setup.exe.

Try it

JAgents is in beta for Windows 10 and 11. Get it from the JAgents page, or update from the Updates box if you already have it. If you update from a version before this one, that first restart still closes your terminals, because the old version does not have the background process yet. Restarts after that keep them. Found a bug? Report it on Discord.

Common questions

Do my agents stop when JAgents updates?

Not anymore. Terminal agents such as Claude Code and Codex keep running while JAgents restarts to install an update, and the new window shows them again with their screens. Closing JAgents yourself still closes them.

Can an AI agent restart JAgents by itself?

Yes. The JAgents MCP server has a restart_jagents tool. A terminal agent that calls it keeps running through the restart and can keep using the jagents tools once the app is back.

How do I hand a thread to a different agent in JAgents?

Pick the other agent in the thread's agent picker. JAgents passes it the recent messages and tool calls, and it continues the same conversation. There is no separate hand off step.

Why did JAgents show the Electron icon on my taskbar?

When JAgents runs from a source folder, its program is Electron's, which carries the Electron icon. JAgents now detects that and adds a JAgents Start Menu entry so the taskbar shows the JAgents icon. If you pinned the old one, unpin it and pin JAgents again.

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