Enabling Execution of Program Instructions in the Background

Techniques are disclosed relating to the execution of a set of program instructions in the background. A parent environment of an application executing on a computer system may receive a request from a first child environment within the parent environment to execute a set of program instructions. The first child environment does not permit the set of program instructions to be executed within the first child environment while the application is backgrounded. In response to the request, the parent environment may spawn a second child environment within the parent environment that permits the set of program instructions to be executed while the application is backgrounded. The parent environment may cause the set of program instructions to be executed within the second child environment and may return a result of the executing to the first child environment.