Cross-Platform "Run with Timeout"

Do not use timeout (GNU coreutils) when agents may run on macOS—it is not installed by default.

Options

• •macOS / BSD: (cmd &); sleep N; kill $! — run command in background, sleep N seconds, then kill the background job.
• •Alternative: Small Node script that spawns the command and kills it after N seconds.

When to Use

• •When a task uses something like timeout 10s npm run dev and it fails on macOS.
• •Prefer documenting one cross-platform pattern rather than retrying with timeout repeatedly.

Keep It Short

This skill should stay a few lines; the main point is "do not use timeout unless the environment is known to provide it."