Background AI Jobs

Some requests are large: proofreading many cards, translating a chapter, making a character’s voice consistent across every scene they appear in, or running the same Rewrite instruction over a long selection. You don’t have to wait for those. Run the request in the background, hide the AI Assist panel and keep working. FlowBoard keeps track of it as an AI job and tells you when the result is ready for review, usually within minutes and at most within 24 hours.

Nothing in your document changes when a job finishes. You review the result and choose what to apply.

What you need

A background job runs on a batch-capable model. At the moment that means an OpenRouter connection and a model whose ID ends in :batch, for example google/gemini-2.5-flash-lite:batch. To add one:

1. In Settings → AI Assist, edit your OpenRouter connection.
2. Under Models, add the :batch ID and select Add. The list marks it Batch.
3. Select Save connection.

Background processing may cost less depending on your provider and model. As for any OpenRouter request, FlowBoard works out the expected cost from OpenRouter’s prices when you send, and asks first if it’s more than your cost limit. For a normal model that has a :batch variant, the estimate also says what the request would cost in the background.

Choose a background model

FlowBoard never switches to a batch model on its own. You choose one when you want a request to run in the background:

• In the AI Assist panel: choose the :batch model under Model. It applies to that request only. Your next new request uses your usual model again.
• In Settings: make the :batch model the connection’s current model if you want every request to run in the background until you change it.

Run a request in the background

1. Start a request as usual. To rewrite several cards, select them in Story Map and choose Rewrite.
2. Choose the :batch model under Model. A note above the instruction says that the request will run in the background.
3. Describe the request, then select Run in Background.

Once AI Assist says the request was sent, you can hide the panel and keep working, and even quit FlowBoard. Draft, Rewrite, Edit and Ask can all run in the background.

A multi-card Rewrite returns every card in one answer. If FlowBoard estimates that the answer won’t fit in the request’s output allowance, it warns you before sending. The estimate is approximate. You can select fewer cards, raise the allowance under Advanced output settings if the model allows more, or select Run in Background anyway. If the model runs out of room, the job fails, and you’re charged for it.

Caution

A job that has been sent can’t be stopped. It runs to the end at the provider, and you’re charged for it even if you discard it in FlowBoard.

Good jobs for the background

The best background jobs apply one instruction to many cards, and you review the result card by card. Open a Rewrite of several cards as described above, choose a :batch model and pick one of these starters:

• Proofread a chapter.
• Translate the selected cards. Name the language under Additional instructions. This replaces the text; to keep the original, use Edit’s Duplicate and translate instead.
• Match the character sheets across the scenes where your characters speak. FlowBoard adds the character sheet of every character in the selected cards.
• Tighten prose across a chapter.

Smooth transition in and Lead into what follows work on one card at a time, and a rewrite inside an open card editor can’t run in the background.

Follow your AI jobs

While a job exists, the header shows its status to the left of the save status, for example 1 AI job processing or 1 AI job ready for review. The AI Assist button in the header also has a dot while a job is processing or ready.

FlowBoard checks on your jobs every minute while it’s open. If you quit, the job keeps running at the provider, and FlowBoard checks again the next time you open it. When a result is ready, a message appears with Review.

To see every job, select the status in the header, AI Jobs at the top of the AI Assist panel, or AI Jobs in the command palette. For each job, the list shows when it was sent, the model, its cost once it has finished, and its status:

Status	What it means
Processing	The provider is still working on it. The list also shows how long it has run and when FlowBoard last checked. Check now checks right away
Ready for review	The result has arrived. Select Review
Needs attention	The result has arrived, but some of it can’t be applied as it is: cards it was written for changed, disappeared or can’t be told apart from others, or a result is unusable. Review shows which
Failed	The job failed at the provider, didn’t finish within 24 hours, or its connection was removed. The status says why. Send the request again

FlowBoard can tell that a job needs attention only while the document it was sent from is open. For an Edit job, the status can also say that the model asked questions instead of planning, or proposed no changes.

AI jobs are kept on this device. They don’t appear on your other devices.

Review and apply a result

1. Open the document the job was sent from. A result can be reviewed only there.
2. Select Review in the message or in AI Jobs.
3. The result opens in the AI Assist tab of its mode, for example Rewrite, in place of the request that was there.

A multi-card Rewrite, card by card

Cards can change while a job runs. A multi-card Rewrite is therefore reviewed card by card, and a problem with one card doesn’t stop you from applying the others. A summary at the top counts the results, for example “5 ready · 1 unchanged · 1 changed”, and each card shows one of these:

Result	What it means
Ready	The rewrite can be applied. It’s shown as a comparison and included unless you select Exclude
Unchanged	The model returned the text as it was
Changed	You changed the card after the job was sent, so the rewrite was written for an earlier version
Missing	FlowBoard can’t find the card as it was sent: it was deleted, or its text was edited
Ambiguous	More than one card could be this one, for example two cards with the same text
Invalid	The result can’t be used, for example the reply has no rewrite for the card, or the rewrite adds tags

If FlowBoard can’t confidently identify the original card after a background job, it doesn’t guess. Only Ready results can be applied. Show card takes you to a card on the board.

Exclude any ready result you don’t want, then select Apply 3 changes (with the number you kept). FlowBoard checks the selected rewrites again against the document as it is now and applies them together. If you changed the document while the review was open, nothing is applied: select Review again.

After you apply, the job leaves the list. Results you didn’t apply aren’t kept, so send a new request for those cards if you still want them rewritten.

Other results

A Draft or Ask result is reviewed exactly like an answer that arrived directly. A Rewrite of a single card and an Edit plan are applied as a whole: if a card they were written for changed after sending, the review names it and the result can’t be applied. Send the request again.

Keep or discard

A result you don’t apply stays in AI Jobs, so you can review it later, even after you hide the panel. Discard result removes it. Discard in AI Jobs also removes a job. For one that’s still processing, select Discard anyway to confirm.

Limits

• Background jobs need a batch-capable model. At the moment that means OpenRouter :batch models.
• Story Map proposals and rewrites inside an open card editor need an answer right away, so they can’t run in the background.
• Only a multi-card Rewrite is reviewed card by card. Other results are applied as a whole or not at all.
• Jobs are kept on this device only.
• If you rename or move a document while its job is processing, FlowBoard can no longer open the result for review.
• A sent job can’t be cancelled. Discarding it in FlowBoard doesn’t stop it at the provider.

Next

• Draft, rewrite and ask covers the Rewrite review for results that arrive directly.
• Edit cards and structure covers the kind of large plan that suits a background job.
• Set up AI Assist explains the cost limit.