john-walks-slow/dsh-wait-subagent

dsh-wait-subagent

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A DeepSeek Harness (cordis) plugin that registers a wait_subagent tool: block until a background continuable subagent settles, then get its stop reason and closing message in the same call.

It fills a real gap in the subagent workflow: run_in_background returns a subagentId immediately, but the only way to learn the outcome is an async settlement notice — there was no tool to actively wait for it.

Real output

Start a subagent in the background, then wait for it:

wait_subagent({ subagent_id: "session-9f2c47ab-83d1-4e06-b5a9-1c7f2d84e0b3" })

The call blocks while the subagent runs. When it settles, the tool returns:

{
  "status": "settled",
  "subagent_id": "session-9f2c47ab-83d1-4e06-b5a9-1c7f2d84e0b3",
  "stop_reason": "completed",
  "closing_message": "Spec written to docs/plan.md; 3 files changed, ready for review."
}

The text the model sees:

Subagent session-9f2c47ab-83d1-4e06-b5a9-1c7f2d84e0b3 settled: completed
Spec written to docs/plan.md; 3 files changed, ready for review.

Other outcomes:

Situation · Result Subagent already settled before the call · { "status": "settled", "subagent_id": "…", "stop_reason": "unknown" } — *"had already settled before this call; its closing message was delivered separately as a settlement notice."* timeout_ms elapsed · { "status": "timeout", "subagent_id": "…" } — *"Timed out waiting for subagent …; it may still be running."* Caller's AbortSignal fired · { "status": "cancelled", "subagent_id": "…" } Unknown / foreign subagent id · Rejected with an error: *"… is not one of your subagents — pass the id a background dispatch returned (see list_agents)"*

Why

What the subagent system gives you today:

• subagent with run_in_background: true → returns a subagentId at once; work continues asynchronously and a settlement notice arrives later.
• subagent with run_in_background: false → blocks at start time only.
• send_message → fire-and-return, never waits for the answer.
• list_agents → a snapshot, not a wait (and explicitly "not to poll").

What's missing: after starting a subagent in the background, there is no tool to block and wait for it to finish. That is exactly what wait_subagent does — use it when your next action depends on the subagent's result, instead of guessing or polling.

How it works

• Registers the wait_subagent tool on every root agent (same pattern as dsh-proactive).
• Membership gate: ctx.subagents.listChildren(parent.id) — the same projection list_agents reads — covers live AND storage-only children, so unknown ids are rejected with an error instead of being misreported as settled. A known child absent from the live registry has already settled.
• The tool listens for the subagent/end lifecycle event — which fires when a child's activation is disposed — scoped through the plugin context (an ancestor of all agent contexts).
• Settlement removes the child from the live registry and dispatches subagent/end in the same synchronous block (finishDisposal), so attaching the listener first and then re-checking the registry is race-free.
• Optional timeout_ms parameter returns status: "timeout" if the subagent does not settle in time. Omit to wait indefinitely — usually the best choice; if set, use a generous value rather than polling with repeated short waits.
• Respects the caller's AbortSignal (returns status: "cancelled").

Tool schema

wait_subagent(subagent_id: string, timeout_ms?: integer)
→ { status: "settled" | "timeout" | "cancelled",
    subagent_id: string,
    stop_reason?: "completed" | "aborted" | "error" | "max-tokens" | "refusal" | "unknown",
    closing_message?: string }

Caveat: don't wait and interrupt in the same step

wait_subagent is concurrency-safe, but interrupt_agent is not — it needs the tool lane exclusively and queues behind any in-flight call. Issuing wait_subagent and interrupt_agent in one parallel step serializes them: the wait runs to its timeout first, and only then does the interrupt land. Call interrupt_agent first, then wait_subagent in the next step (an already-interrupted child settles quickly).

Install

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-wait-subagent

Or straight from GitHub (source install — plain ESM JavaScript, no build step, so pnpm ≥ 10 build-script approval is not needed):

dsh plugin --profile web add github:john-walks-slow/dsh-wait-subagent

Restart your DSH instance after installing; the bundled cordis.patch.yml registers the loader entry automatically.

Permissions & compatibility

• What it touches: registers exactly one model-facing Agent tool (wait_subagent) on every root agent. No web client, no UI changes, no configuration.
• Blocking semantics: while waiting, the call holds the calling agent's tool lane until the subagent settles, the optional timeout elapses, or the caller aborts — that is the feature. The wait itself is event-driven (subagent/end lifecycle event), not polling; CPU cost while blocked is negligible. An omit-timeout_ms wait is unbounded by design; set a generous timeout_ms when you need a bound.
• No side effects: no network requests, no external services, no filesystem writes.
• Dependencies: @deepseek-ai/dsh-tools 0.1.2-rc.1 (aligned with the dsh 0.1.2-rc.1 locked version), Node ≥ 22.5.

Local development

npm install

That's it — lib/ is plain ESM JavaScript; there is no build step and no test suite.

Release a new version

npm run release        # bumps the patch version and packs /tmp/dsh-wait-subagent-<newver>.tgz

Then publish the tarball to npm and push the version commit and tag:

git push --follow-tags

Verify with npm view dsh-wait-subagent version.

License

MIT

Community

• Thanks to the LINUX DO community for providing the discussion environment.