---
title: "Background investigations"
description: "Run investigations asynchronously in the interactive shell and receive RCA completion notifications."
---

OpenSRE's interactive shell supports a **session-local background mode** for
investigations.

When background mode is enabled:

- new investigations run asynchronously
- the shell stays free for more questions and follow-ups
- completed RCAs are tracked in-session
- email notifications can be sent on completion via the `smtp` integration

<Note>
This first version is **session-local only**. If the REPL process exits,
in-flight background jobs stop with it.
</Note>

---

## Commands

```text
/background on
/background off
/background status
/background list
/background show <task_id>
/background use <task_id>
/background notify list
/background notify set email
```

### What they do

- `/background on` — enable async investigation launches
- `/background off` — return to normal foreground execution
- `/background list` — show tracked jobs
- `/background show <task_id>` — show the RCA summary for one job
- `/background use <task_id>` — promote a completed job into the active follow-up context
- `/background notify set email` — keep email as the completion channel in v1

---

## Typical flow

1. Start the interactive shell.
2. Enable background mode:

```text
/background on
```

3. Start an investigation:

```text
/investigate kubernetes-high-cpu
```

or paste a fresh alert in free text.

4. Keep using the shell while the RCA runs.
5. When it completes:
   - inspect it with `/background show <task_id>`
   - adopt it into active follow-up context with `/background use <task_id>`

---

## RCA summary contents

Completed background jobs store:

- root cause
- top analysis items
- recommended next steps
- internal stats:
  - tool call count
  - investigation loop count
  - validity score

---

## Email notifications

Email delivery is handled through the [`smtp`](/smtp) integration.

The notification email focuses on:

- **Root cause**
- **Top analysis**
- **What to do next**

plus a short internal stats section.

---

## Current v1 limits

- notification preferences are email-only in the current shipped path
- jobs are not persisted across REPL restarts
- completion does not automatically replace your active follow-up context
- you must run `/background use <task_id>` to promote a finished RCA