---
title: "Stopping Agents"
description: "If an agent doesn't respond to graceful shutdown: By default, naos stop sends a shutdown signal and waits up to 30 seconds: 1. Agent receives shutdown signal 2. Agent completes current task (if any) 3. Agent saves state "
resource: https://www.aiagents.nexus/docs/manual/agents/stopping-agents
generated: { by: "process:nexus-agent-assets", at: 2026-09-07T09:13:03Z }
status: stable
---

# Stopping Agents

## Stop an Agent

```bash
naos stop researcher

# Output:
# ✓ Stopping agent: researcher
# ✓ Agent stopped gracefully
```

## Force Stop

If an agent doesn't respond to graceful shutdown:

```bash
naos stop researcher --force

# Output:
# ✓ Force stopping agent: researcher
# ✓ WASM instance terminated
```

## Stop All Agents

```bash
naos stop --all

# Output:
# ✓ Stopping researcher
# ✓ Stopping analyzer
# ✓ 2 agents stopped
```

## Graceful Shutdown

By default, `naos stop` sends a shutdown signal and waits up to 30 seconds:

1. Agent receives shutdown signal
2. Agent completes current task (if any)
3. Agent saves state
4. Agent exits

If the agent doesn't exit within 30 seconds, it's force-terminated.

## Stop vs. Kill

| Command | Behavior |
|---------|----------|
| `naos stop` | Graceful shutdown, waits 30s |
| `naos stop --force` | Immediate termination |

## Supervisor Interaction

If an agent is supervised, stopping it may trigger a restart:

```bash
# Stop without supervisor restart
naos stop researcher --no-restart

# Stop and let supervisor decide
naos stop researcher
```