Orchestrating 24/7 AI Agents on a Mac
dev.to·
Running persistent AI agent loops on macOS often leads developers to rely on cron, background nohup scripts, or resource-heavy Docker containers. This article evaluates process managers for long-running local agents and highlights why macOS's native launchd service manager is the optimal choice. Unlike cron or ad-hoc background tasks, launchd operates at PID 1, offering native event-driven supervision, low idle memory footprint (~0 MB compared to 2-4 GB for Docker Desktop), structured logging paths, and throttled KeepAlive restart policies tailored for process exit codes. Why it matters: Effective workflow automation requires light, reliable local infrastructure. Leveraging native operating system process supervision allows developers to run continuous agent loops and background tasks efficiently on developer workstations without bloating system resources or introducing unnecessary container overhead.