133 lines
5.5 KiB
Markdown
133 lines
5.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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summary: "Sub-agents: spawning isolated agent runs that announce results back to the requester chat"
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read_when:
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- You want background/parallel work via the agent
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- You are changing sessions_spawn or sub-agent tool policy
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---
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# Sub-agents
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Sub-agents are background agent runs spawned from an existing agent run. They run in their own session (`agent:<agentId>:subagent:<uuid>`) and, when finished, **announce** their result back to the requester chat channel.
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## Slash command
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Use `/subagents` to inspect or control sub-agent runs for the **current session**:
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- `/subagents list`
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- `/subagents stop <id|#|all>`
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- `/subagents log <id|#> [limit] [tools]`
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- `/subagents info <id|#>`
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- `/subagents send <id|#> <message>`
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`/subagents info` shows run metadata (status, timestamps, session id, transcript path, cleanup).
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Primary goals:
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- Parallelize “research / long task / slow tool” work without blocking the main run.
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- Keep sub-agents isolated by default (session separation + optional sandboxing).
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- Keep the tool surface hard to misuse: sub-agents do **not** get session tools by default.
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- Avoid nested fan-out: sub-agents cannot spawn sub-agents.
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## Tool
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Use `sessions_spawn`:
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- Starts a sub-agent run (`deliver: false`, global lane: `subagent`)
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- Then runs an announce step and posts the announce reply to the requester chat channel
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- Default model: inherits the caller unless you set `agents.defaults.subagents.model` (or per-agent `agents.list[].subagents.model`); an explicit `sessions_spawn.model` still wins.
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Tool params:
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- `task` (required)
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- `label?` (optional)
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- `agentId?` (optional; spawn under another agent id if allowed)
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- `model?` (optional; overrides the sub-agent model; invalid values are skipped and the sub-agent runs on the default model with a warning in the tool result)
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- `thinking?` (optional; overrides thinking level for the sub-agent run)
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- `runTimeoutSeconds?` (default `0`; when set, the sub-agent run is aborted after N seconds)
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- `cleanup?` (`delete|keep`, default `keep`)
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Allowlist:
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- `agents.list[].subagents.allowAgents`: list of agent ids that can be targeted via `agentId` (`["*"]` to allow any). Default: only the requester agent.
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Discovery:
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- Use `agents_list` to see which agent ids are currently allowed for `sessions_spawn`.
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Auto-archive:
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- Sub-agent sessions are automatically archived after `agents.defaults.subagents.archiveAfterMinutes` (default: 60).
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- Archive uses `sessions.delete` and renames the transcript to `*.deleted.<timestamp>` (same folder).
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- `cleanup: "delete"` archives immediately after announce (still keeps the transcript via rename).
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- Auto-archive is best-effort; pending timers are lost if the gateway restarts.
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- `runTimeoutSeconds` does **not** auto-archive; it only stops the run. The session remains until auto-archive.
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## Authentication
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Sub-agent auth is resolved by **agent id**, not by session type:
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- The sub-agent session key is `agent:<agentId>:subagent:<uuid>`.
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- The auth store is loaded from that agent’s `agentDir`.
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- The main agent’s auth profiles are merged in as a **fallback**; agent profiles override main profiles on conflicts.
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Note: the merge is additive, so main profiles are always available as fallbacks. Fully isolated auth per agent is not supported yet.
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## Announce
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Sub-agents report back via an announce step:
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- The announce step runs inside the sub-agent session (not the requester session).
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- If the sub-agent replies exactly `ANNOUNCE_SKIP`, nothing is posted.
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- Otherwise the announce reply is posted to the requester chat channel via the gateway `send` method.
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- Announce messages are normalized to a stable template:
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- `Status:` derived from the run outcome (`success`, `error`, `timeout`, or `unknown`).
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- `Result:` the summary content from the announce step (or `(not available)` if missing).
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- `Notes:` error details and other useful context.
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- `Status` is not inferred from model output; it comes from runtime outcome signals.
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Announce payloads include a stats line at the end (even when wrapped):
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- Runtime (e.g., `runtime 5m12s`)
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- Token usage (input/output/total)
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- Estimated cost when model pricing is configured (`models.providers.*.models[].cost`)
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- `sessionKey`, `sessionId`, and transcript path (so the main agent can fetch history via `sessions_history` or inspect the file on disk)
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## Tool Policy (sub-agent tools)
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By default, sub-agents get **all tools except session tools**:
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- `sessions_list`
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- `sessions_history`
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- `sessions_send`
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- `sessions_spawn`
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Override via config:
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```json5
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{
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agents: {
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defaults: {
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subagents: {
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maxConcurrent: 1
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}
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}
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},
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tools: {
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subagents: {
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tools: {
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// deny wins
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deny: ["gateway", "cron"],
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// if allow is set, it becomes allow-only (deny still wins)
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// allow: ["read", "exec", "process"]
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}
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}
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}
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}
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```
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## Concurrency
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Sub-agents use a dedicated in-process queue lane:
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- Lane name: `subagent`
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- Concurrency: `agents.defaults.subagents.maxConcurrent` (default `8`)
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## Stopping
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- Sending `/stop` in the requester chat aborts the requester session and stops any active sub-agent runs spawned from it.
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## Limitations
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- Sub-agent announce is **best-effort**. If the gateway restarts, pending “announce back” work is lost.
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- Sub-agents still share the same gateway process resources; treat `maxConcurrent` as a safety valve.
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- `sessions_spawn` is always non-blocking: it returns `{ status: "accepted", runId, childSessionKey }` immediately.
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- Sub-agent context only injects `AGENTS.md` + `TOOLS.md` (no `SOUL.md`, `IDENTITY.md`, `USER.md`, `HEARTBEAT.md`, or `BOOTSTRAP.md`).
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