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Subagent rows can remain running for days after semantic text says subagents are done #341
Description
Problem
Subagent UI can show old agents as still running long after the semantic/live text reports completion.
Related: #178.
Evidence
Bundle 2026-06-21T20-14-23-131-62432945:
- Note complains that subagent UI is poor/regressed.
state-snapshot.json: 73 subagents, 57 stillrunning; somelastActivityAtvalues are from June 18.proxy-semantic.json: text says "All 7 subagents done".
Bundle 2026-06-22T09-05-45-698-7733b0fc:
- 79 subagents, 77 still
running, with stale activity timestamps.
Suspected Cause
Codex status derivation is too narrow. Status appears to flip to terminal only when:
- a
<subagent_notification>reports completed/failed, or - child entries contain
event_msg task_complete.
There is no stale/terminal inference from parent wait text, child session exit, lack of activity, or parent wait_agent completion semantics.
Relevant paths:
src/main/subagents/codexSubagentState.tssrc/renderer/src/features/feed/ui/rows/TaskSubagentRow.tsx
Expected
Completed/waited Codex subagents should transition to done/error reliably. Old inactive child sessions should not remain visually running forever, and debug diagnostics should summarize subagent status counts and stale-running candidates.
Activity
Juliusolsson05 commentedon Jun 22, 2026
Linking this to #172 and #178 with an important boundary: stale-running status is a lifecycle/state derivation bug, so the new rendering engine will not fully solve it by itself.
The #172/#178 work should still consume the final subagent lifecycle state as typed feed items and make status ownership/debug output clear. After #172 lands, this should be re-tested to separate state bugs from display bugs.
Merge pull request #459 from Juliusolsson05/fix/subagent-lifecycle-341
Juliusolsson05 commentedon Jul 7, 2026
Fixed by #459 (wait_agent fan-in terminal inference for MCP children +
stalestatus after ~5 quiet minutes so a subagent is never an eternal spinner + terminal pruning after ~10m) and #488 finding-16 (tombstone pruned agents so a completed child's transcript isn't re-tailed as "running" every poll). The stuck "57 of 73 still running for days" case is addressed. Closing.