# Agent Note: Claude Code and Codex subagent backends

Status: implemented

English | [中文](2026-08-04-claude-code-and-codex-subagent-backends.zh.md)

## Problem

The named [`ctx.subagents`](2026-06-21-subagent-capability-seam.md) registry lets a parent agent delegate work without knowing how the child runs, but the harness needs first-party routes to the real Codex and Claude Code products. Each route must hand the product one self-contained task, let it work in the parent Session's workspace, return a final answer or an explicit failure or cancellation, and leave no managed product process behind.

The product integrations must not become second owners for task text, cwd, cancellation, result settlement, or process trees. Required evidence therefore separates three facts: a keyless real-product test proves the official integration, native authentication shape, deterministic answer, and teardown; a Loader composition test proves that the public package and documented tool configuration load without starting the product; and a credentialed e2e proves that the production provider and real product can obtain a unique answer from the real DeepSeek service. Direct model HTTP or a product double cannot replace either product-running tier, and a hand-mounted plugin cannot replace the Loader tier.

## Decision

The harness publishes two sibling one-shot providers as independently installable, opt-in packages. A user loads a provider and the existing common subagent tool in their own `cordis.yml`: `subagent_codex` binds `codex`, while `subagent_claude_code` binds `claude-code`. The shipped CLI dependency closure and base, Web, and headless configurations load neither provider. Each tool accepts only a standalone text task; product selection and background execution are not model arguments.

Both providers report `inheritsParentContext: false`, advertise no optional start capabilities, and pass the parent Session cwd without copying the parent conversation. Their documented tools disable background execution and use `maxDepth: 'provider-managed'`, leaving recursion policy with the out-of-process product instead of sending a limit the provider cannot enforce. Every call creates a fresh product process and a non-resumable product conversation. The shared subagent service continues to own request resolution, lifecycle events, result settlement, and foreground collection; the shared subprocess service owns credential scrubbing, process-tree termination, and whole-tree exit observation.

```text
fixed tool → shared subagent service → product provider → official product process
     ← final answer / explicit error / cancellation ← terminal product fact
     → foreground disposal → shared process-tree termination → whole-tree exit
```

### Ownership and lifecycle

| Phase | Shared owner | Product-specific responsibility | Observable result |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Resolve | `dsh-tool-subagent` and `ctx.subagents` | Validate the product's text-only input and derive native startup parameters | Unsupported context or malformed input fails before a run is published |
| Start | `dsh-subprocess` owns every acquired process tree | Reach the smallest native point at which the product conversation and process can both be controlled | `start()` publishes one existing `SubagentRun`, or cleans up and rejects |
| Run | The product owns its native protocol facts; the holder owns their mapping | Submit exactly one task and derive an existing shared stop reason; Codex uses `max-tokens` only for explicit context exhaustion | The parent receives only a final answer or an explicit failure |
| Dispose | The foreground consumer requests release; `dsh-subprocess` proves exit | Close the native protocol and express any best-effort native cancellation | Disposal is idempotent and returns only after the whole process tree exits |

## Codex provider

`@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent-codex` registers the fixed `codex` provider and starts `codex app-server --stdio` from `PATH`. Its public configuration contains only an explicit `env` overlay and a positive finite `disposeGraceMs` no greater than the repository's shared `MAX_TIMER_DELAY_MS`. Installation, login, `CODEX_HOME`, model selection, base URL, sandbox, approval policy, and product-session settings remain native Codex or deployment responsibilities.

Before publication, the provider validates a non-empty text-only task, starts the managed app-server in the parent workspace, completes `initialize` → `initialized`, and creates an `ephemeral: true` thread. The published run owns exactly one `turn/start`; its thread and turn ids remain private and are never persisted in the parent Session.

`turn/completed` is the authoritative remote terminal fact. The latest `agentMessage` with `phase: "final_answer"` wins, and that selected message must contain nonblank text. When the product emits no explicit final phase, the latest message with `phase: null` is the compatibility fallback and must likewise be nonblank; commentary never replaces either answer. A failed turn with `error.codexErrorInfo: "contextWindowExceeded"` becomes `max-tokens`. A completed turn without an answer, every other failed or interrupted remote turn, malformed required fields in a recognized app-server frame, protocol closure, early process exit, or unknown server request becomes `error`; this version has no native refusal terminal and therefore produces no `refusal`. Local cancellation wins its race and remains `aborted`.

For command and file approvals, the unattended wire selects a non-approval decision offered by the request, preferring `cancel`; the stable 0.147.0 request shape without an offered-decision list falls back to `decline`. It grants no requested permissions for the turn, answers user-input requests with no answers, and declines MCP elicitation. A request with no legal unattended response, or any unknown server request, fails the run instead of waiting for a user interface the provider does not supply.

An unpublished startup failure closes the wire, terminates the acquired process tree, waits for exit, and then rejects `start()`. Published disposal best-effort interrupts a known turn, closes the wire, ends stdin, invokes the shared termination escalation, and waits for whole-tree exit. Result failure and teardown failure stay independently observable.

Codex 0.147.0 speaks the Responses protocol, while DeepSeek's public OpenAI-compatible endpoint speaks Chat Completions. The credentialed Codex e2e therefore uses a loopback-only, test-private bridge for one no-tool nonce request: real Codex sends Responses to the bridge, the bridge forwards the received bearer credential and extracted task to the fixed official DeepSeek endpoint, and it wraps the real text in the minimal Responses SSE lifecycle. The bridge is neither a production proxy nor evidence that Codex connects to DeepSeek Chat Completions natively.

## Claude Code provider

`@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent-claude-code` registers the fixed `claude-code` provider and invokes `@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk@0.3.220`. The SDK's platform `optionalDependency` supplies the real Claude Code 2.1.220 CLI. The provider uses the official `query()` entrypoint and passes the SDK's `spawnClaudeCodeProcess` command, arguments, cwd, environment, and forwarded signal unchanged to `dsh-subprocess`; its private `SpawnedProcess` adapter exposes only the stream, event, kill, and exit facts the SDK requires.

The public configuration contains the same two deployment-owned values as the Codex sibling: an explicit `env` overlay and a positive finite `disposeGraceMs` no greater than the repository's shared `MAX_TIMER_DELAY_MS`. Each run creates its own `AbortController`, sets `persistSession: false`, and disables `AskUserQuestion`. The provider deliberately omits `settingSources`, so the SDK reads the host's normal user, project, and local Claude settings relative to the parent Session cwd. It neither copies nor filters those settings and does not create or modify login state. It supplies no `canUseTool`, elicitation, or dialog callback, so unattended interactions fail through the SDK rather than waiting for a user interface the provider does not own.

The provider publishes only after both the SDK `Query` and a live managed CLI handle exist. It consumes the complete SDK stream and completes only when a `result` message has `subtype: "success"`, `is_error: false`, and a nonblank `result`, and the iterator then ends normally. Every SDK error subtype, an error-marked success, a missing result, iterator failure, protocol failure, or process failure becomes `error`. SDK turn, budget, and structured-output limits are not token-window facts, and the SDK exposes no native refusal terminal, so this provider produces neither `max-tokens` nor `refusal`. Local cancellation wins and becomes `aborted`.

Startup rollback and published disposal close the SDK query, abort the per-run controller, invoke shared process-tree termination, and wait for whole-tree exit. `Query.close()` expresses graceful protocol intent but does not replace the subprocess owner's exit proof. Query-close failure, process failure, and teardown failure remain independently observable.

The credentialed Claude Code e2e uses the official DeepSeek Claude Code contract directly: the runtime-only DeepSeek key becomes `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN`, the fixed official base gains `/anthropic`, and the main and subagent model variables select the documented DeepSeek models. It starts the production provider and real SDK/CLI, requires one random nonce as the complete answer, persists no credential in settings, and waits for every managed handle to exit.

## Distribution and evidence

Each product owns branch-complete package tests, a required keyless real-product spec, a Loader composition e2e, and a credentialed DeepSeek e2e. The keyless product tier uses the exact official distribution under test, a non-empty fake product key, an isolated temporary workspace and product home, and a loopback fixed-answer model. Missing product requests, wrong authentication, altered task text, a non-exact answer, a skipped real product, or a surviving managed handle fails the required test. The Loader tier boots the README-shaped user configuration, verifies both fixed foreground-only tools in one context, and starts neither product process. The credentialed tier starts the same production provider and real product with a runtime-only key, requires a unique nonce from the fixed official DeepSeek service, and proves quiescence again; it self-skips only when a local operator supplied no key, while trusted CI preflights the secret.

The Codex evidence pins `@openai/codex@0.147.0` and `codex-cli 0.147.0`. Its real-product spec observes the exact Bearer key, original task, byte-exact final answer, unattended command rejection with no file side effect, local cancellation, and whole-tree exit. Production still supplies `codex` on `PATH`.

The Codex credentialed e2e registers the production provider, starts the same real app-server, and requests one random nonce through the test-private bridge described above. It fixes the external endpoint and model, stores no credential or request payload, requires exactly one completed upstream response, compares the trimmed product answer byte-for-byte with the nonce, and waits for every managed handle to exit.

The Claude Code evidence pins Agent SDK 0.3.220 and its platform-distributed Claude Code 2.1.220 CLI. Its real-product spec observes the exact `x-api-key`, original task, byte-exact final answer, inherited temporary host-setting marker, process failure, local cancellation, and whole-tree exit. The Loader e2e resolves both product packages by name while neither product command is available and records zero child starts.

The Claude Code credentialed e2e maps the key and fixed official endpoint only in the provider's in-memory environment, uses the documented `deepseek-v4-pro[1m]` and `deepseek-v4-flash` model variables, and traverses the production provider, official SDK, and real CLI. It compares the trimmed result with a random nonce and proves whole-tree exit without calling the Messages API directly from the test.

The project owner's distribution authorization is scoped to the official `@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk` identity and the official Claude Code CLI/platform payloads each SDK version declares through `optionalDependencies`. [`THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md`](../../../../THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md) derives and discloses the current payload set without reclassifying its declared terms as permissive. Version, license-field, and payload-set changes still undergo ordinary dependency, lockfile, compatibility, terms, and notices review; unrelated non-permissive runtime packages continue to fail closed.

## Alternatives considered

**Direct model HTTP, `codex exec`, or a hand-written Claude CLI protocol.** These paths bypass the products' official extensible integration surfaces and cannot prove native configuration, tools, approvals, result semantics, or teardown. Each provider uses its official product integration instead.

**A shared product-process helper package.** The existing subagent and subprocess seams already own every shared task, result, environment, and process-tree concern. A new helper would duplicate ownership without deleting either private product adapter, so each adapter calls the existing seams directly.

**A model-visible product selector.** Product availability and authentication are deployment facts. Two fixed tools keep each schema and provider binding explicit and avoid adding dynamic selection state to the common service.

**Product doubles as required evidence.** Doubles cover exhaustive private protocol branches but do not prove package exports, official distributions, authentication, or real process behavior. Required evidence drives each official product against a loopback model fixture.

**Plugin-managed login, product home, models, settings, or permissions.** Those choices would create another authority beside each product's native configuration and enlarge a one-shot provider into account management. The providers expose only an explicit environment overlay and teardown grace; unattended interaction fails closed.

**Continuation, progress, background collection, and shared parent context.** The delivered user result is one self-contained task and one final answer. Product sessions, resume, follow-up, intermediate messages, parent transcript transfer, structured output, and background collection need separate user contracts and are not prebuilt.

## Consequences

Users can install either or both product providers, bind stable foreground tools in their own Cordis configuration, and delegate one self-contained task through the existing subagent contract. Official product integrations preserve native settings and behavior while shared services retain the sole ownership of task settlement and process-tree quiescence.

Every delegation pays for a fresh product process and independent model context, and only final text reaches the parent. Product-native configuration makes behavior depend on the deployment's installed product, account state, and workspace settings. Credentialed e2e runs also spend external API quota and depend on the official DeepSeek endpoint; deterministic protocol, failure, cancellation, and approval coverage remains in the keyless tier. The providers do not resume sessions, stream progress, accept new human interaction, roll back tool or file side effects, or impose a wall-clock timeout.

Compatibility is pinned by package-level unit coverage, keyless real-product loopback tests, credentialed DeepSeek nonce tests, public Loader composition, built-package and NodeNext consumer checks, generated documentation and notices, and the repository CI matrix. A supported product or DeepSeek endpoint/model baseline change must refresh those facts; production performs no separate runtime version probe.