Gemini's Managed Agents API Now Runs Jobs in the Background and Connects Directly to Remote MCP Servers
The core problem with running long agent tasks over a standard HTTP connection is fragility: if anything breaks the connection — a network blip, a timeout, a client restart — the job dies mid-flight. Google's solution, shipped this month to the Managed Agents feature in the Gemini Interactions API, is a straightforward flag: set background: true in your interaction request, and the API hands back an interaction_id immediately instead of holding the connection open. Your client can walk away, reconnect hours later using that ID, and retrieve the result — or stream progress updates while it runs in Google's isolated cloud sandbox. For agents doing anything that takes more than a minute or two, this changes the reliability calculus entirely.
The second update shipped alongside it: Managed Agents now connect directly to remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers without requiring developers to build custom proxy middleware. Pass an mcp_server tool in the interaction request and the agent can reach private databases, internal APIs, or any other resource sitting behind an MCP endpoint — mixing it with built-in sandbox tools like Google Search or code execution in the same call. The infrastructure side — HTTP endpoints, authorization, audit logging — is handled on Google's end rather than requiring a local stdio server.
Both updates land in the Gemini Interactions API, which went generally available in June 2026 and is now the recommended interface for all new Gemini agent work. Gemini 3.6 Flash — which we covered at its release in July — is the default model powering Managed Agents. Enterprise Agent Platform users also got an extended runtime cap this month: up to seven days of continuous execution for complex multi-step workflows, up from the shorter windows available before.
A credential refresh mechanism also shipped at the same time, maintaining authentication across long-running sessions without manual re-authentication — a detail that matters for any agent expected to stay operational over hours rather than minutes.
