AutoGPT continuous mode is officially not recommended, it can run forever

TL;DR

Run AutoGPT with explicit approval steps instead of --continuous unless you accept unbounded spending and actions. When exposing the serve UI, set APSERVERPORT deliberately and never leave the default port reachable where you do not want it.

Steps

1. Run AutoGPT with explicit approval steps instead of --continuous unless you accept unbounded spending and actions. Save and resume agent state between runs rather than letting a loop spin indefinitely. When exposing the serve UI, set APSERVERPORT deliberately and never leave the default port reachable where you do not want it.

When to use

You are seeing this: Save and resume agent state between runs rather than letting a loop spin indefinitely. Use this skill when you run into "AutoGPT continuous mode is officially not recommended, it can run forever".

When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

Source: AutoGPT's official classic usage docs document the run modes. The run subcommand executes a single agent and saves its state on termination so agents can be resumed later; the CLI defaults to run when no subcommand is given. Continuous mode runs the AI with no user authorization, 100 percent automated, and the docs explicitly say it is NOT recommended: it is potentially dangerous and may cause the AI to run forever or carry out actions you would not authorize. The serve subcommand exposes an Agent Protocol API with a UI on port 8000 by default, configurable through the APSERVERPORT environment variable.

Verified resolution: Run AutoGPT with explicit approval steps instead of --continuous unless you accept unbounded spending and actions. Save and resume agent state between runs rather than letting a loop spin indefinitely. When exposing the serve UI, set APSERVERPORT deliberately and never leave the default port reachable where you do not want it.

Source URL: https://github.com/Significant-Gravitas/AutoGPT/blob/master/docs/content/classic/usage.md