Tianyi Cui
25eccdaedc
Address four findings from the first Codex review round: - Contain subagent/start|end listener throws (emitContainedStart/End): a thrown lifecycle listener could escape SubagentService.start() before the caller received the live run to dispose it (a leaked child), and a thrown subagent/end listener could surface as an unhandled rejection on the detached result-settle hook. Both emits now log-and-contain, mirroring the agent registry's agent/created|disposed containment. - Make the model-facing tool name configurable (Config.toolName, default subagent). The docs say to load dsh-tool-subagent once per provider to expose multiple transports, but the hardcoded name made the second load throw a duplicate-tool-name error; a distinct toolName per load is now required and documented. - Reach the per-file 100% coverage gate: tests for the subagent/end error branch, lifecycle-listener containment, every stopReasonError arm + the merge-extensible default, the multi-provider toolName path, agentOptions forwarding, and the direct-apply schema-bypass fallbacks. - Document the seam vocabulary in docs/core-data-structures/subagent.md with verbatim type-equiv blocks + manifest entries, and link it from core.md (a brand-new core/seam type the doc-sync gate cannot detect on its own).
@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent
The subagent seam: an abstract SubagentService (ctx.subagents) for an agent delegating work to another agent. A subagent is a child agent; a SubagentProvider is one transport for running it.
This package is the interface third of the capability seam, split so each concern evolves (and swaps) independently:
| Package | Role |
|---|---|
@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent (this) |
the interface: registry service + vocabulary types |
@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent-spawn |
an implementation: fresh in-process child |
@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent-fork |
an implementation: in-process child seeded from the parent's log |
@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent-acp |
an implementation: ACP client driving another process |
@deepseek-ai/dsh-tool-subagent |
the model-facing tool over ctx.subagents |
Unlike the bash seam (one executor per context, second load throws), multiple providers coexist here. Each registers under a unique name and a caller picks one by name — the shape mirrors the LLM adapter registry (LlmService.registerAdapter), not the single-service bash executor. This is the requirement that rules out the bash shape: an agent may want an in-process child for a cheap subtask and an out-of-process ACP child for an isolated one, in the same runtime.
Service API (ctx.subagents)
| Member | Semantics |
|---|---|
registerProvider(provider) |
Register under provider.name. Throws SubagentError('DUPLICATE_PROVIDER') on a name clash. Effect-scoped (HMR-safe); returns the disposer. |
getProvider(name) |
Look up a provider (undefined if absent). |
list() |
Registered provider names (insertion order). |
start(name, request) |
Resolve the provider (NO_PROVIDER if absent), validate every requested START-TIME capability (UNSUPPORTED_CAPABILITY for the first unmet one — before any child is created), then delegate to provider.start and emit subagent/start / subagent/end around the run. |
Capabilities: two kinds, discovered two ways
- Start-time features (
outputSchema,depthLimit,toolFilter) are a staticprovider.capabilitiesdescriptor, checked by the service BEFORE a run exists. A request that needs one the provider lacks is rejected loud (UNSUPPORTED_CAPABILITY), never accepted-then-ignored. - Runtime features (steering, resume) are optional methods on
SubagentRun(sendMessage?,resume?). The method's presence IS the capability; TS narrowing is the discovery mechanism — a consumer cannot call an absent method without narrowing first, so there is no silent degradation path.
Run lifecycle
provider.start(request) returns a SubagentRun: a handle with a result promise, cancel(), dispose(), and the optional runtime methods. result resolves with a SubagentResult (output, optional structured, stopReason) — it does not reject on a child-level failure (a model/transport failure resolves with stopReason: 'error'), so the consumer maps a non-completed reason to an isError tool result. The consumer MUST dispose() on every path (success, error, abort) to reach child quiescence and avoid leaking an idle child / session.
Scope (first cut)
The consumer collects synchronously: it starts a run and awaits result. Steering (sendMessage) is part of the contract but intentionally unused. Background / poll / spill semantics are deferred to a future redesign unifying long-running-tool handling across subagents and bash. See the RFC: docs/rfc/proposed/feature/2026-06-21-subagent-capability-seam.md.
See src/types.ts for the full contracts.