Graceful Shutdown

VerifiedSafe

The Graceful Shutdown skill (alias "kill") instructs an AI agent to stop current work, commit any uncommitted changes with a WIP message, and report its status to the human. It is used when a human needs to kill and restart agents, ensuring no work is lost and the agent can resume later.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DevelopmentBeginner
506/2/2026
Claude Code
#graceful-shutdown#save-progress#wrap-up#agent-restart

Recommended for

Our review

This skill allows an agent to gracefully shut down by saving progress, reporting status, and preparing for a restart.

Strengths

  • Quickly commits changes via Git with a WIP message
  • Clearly reports current state to the developer
  • Minimizes work loss during restarts

Limitations

  • Does not handle cases where Git is unavailable
  • Assumes the agent can push to a remote repository
  • Does not cover saving non-Git-related branches
When to use it

Use this skill when you need to kill and restart an agent quickly while keeping track of ongoing work.

When not to use it

Do not use it when you want to permanently stop an agent with no intention to resume work.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score85/100

The skill instructs standard git operations (status, add, commit, push) to save state before shutdown. No destructive commands, data exfiltration, or obfuscated payloads are present. The push command includes error handling and avoids forced pushes. There is no network abuse or credential exposure beyond normal version control usage.

No concerns found

Examples

Shutdown agent gracefully
Please kill yourself gracefully – save your progress and report status before shutdown.
Restart needed
Wrap up your current work and get ready for a restart. I need to kill and restart you.

name: kill description: Gracefully wrap up current work before agent shutdown. Use when you need to kill and restart agents.

Graceful Shutdown

The human wants to kill and restart agents. Wrap up your work as quickly and cleanly as possible.

Instructions

Do these steps quickly - don't deliberate:

1. Stop Current Work

  • Stop whatever you're doing immediately
  • Don't start any new tasks

2. Save Your Progress

# Check what's uncommitted
git status

# If you have changes, commit them with a WIP message
git add -A
git commit -m "WIP: [brief description of what you were working on]"

# Push to your branch (not main) if possible
git push origin HEAD 2>/dev/null || echo "Could not push - that's OK"

3. Update Status (if applicable)

If you were working on an issue:

  • Do NOT remove any labels - leave the state as-is for when you restart
  • The "Picking this up" comment already shows you claimed it

If you have a PR with status:needs-changes:

  • Leave it - you'll address it after restart

4. Report Status

Briefly tell the human:

  1. What you were working on
  2. Current state (committed/uncommitted, PR status if any)
  3. What you'll pick up on restart

5. Confirm Ready

Say: "Ready for shutdown."

Important

  • Be FAST - the human is waiting
  • Don't overthink - just save state and report
  • It's OK to leave work incomplete - you'll resume after restart
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