ds-review-bot round 2, both warnings:
- subagent/provider-removed now routes through emitLifecycle (per-listener
containment, the subagent/start|end precedent) instead of raw ctx.emit,
whose dispatch halts on the first throw: a throwing subscriber can no
longer starve a later mirror into keeping a stale tool, nor disrupt the
backend fiber's teardown mid-disposer. provider-added deliberately keeps
propagation (register-time rollback semantics, like the system-prompt
registries); the asymmetry is documented on emitLifecycle, the event
JSDoc, and the provider-lifecycle RFC.
- The documented model-via-agent/request fallback composes with a
{{model}} persona via the ownership rule itself: the plugin supplying
the model late states it early on the system-prompt/assemble waterfall.
Declined re-ordering render after agent/request — it would break the
agent/pre-step contract (compaction must measure the prompt the model
sees). New loop test pins the supply path end-to-end; the RFC's
{{model}} consequence bullet now covers supply as well as switch.
@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.
Beside capabilities sits one DESCRIPTIVE fact, not validated by the service: provider.inheritsParentContext — whether a child sees the parent conversation (fork: true — seeded with the completed-turn prefix; spawn/acp: false). The model-facing consumer (dsh-tool-subagent) derives truthful tool wording from it.
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.
The service also announces provider lifecycle: subagent/provider-added (the live provider) fires after a registration and subagent/provider-removed (the name) after an unregistration, so a consumer deriving state from a named provider (the model-facing tool wording) mirrors registry membership instead of assuming load order — the cordis Loader starts sibling plugins concurrently, so "listed earlier" does not mean "registered earlier". The service emits subagent/start (payload SubagentRunInfo) and subagent/end (payload SubagentRunEndInfo) around the run — both observe-only (plain emits; subagent/end fires from a detached .then and awaits no listener). subagent/end carries lastAssistantMessage (a deep clone of the child's final output) on the settle path, absent when the run rejected at the infrastructure level. The clone keeps the surface observe-only: the end emit fires from a detached .then before the caller's await run.result resumes, so a shared reference would let a mutating listener corrupt the caller's result. A subagent/start listener can still reach the live child via ctx.agents.get(info.id); a subagent/end listener can only observe (the run has settled). Any run-affecting decision (continuation, injection that changes the run) is out of scope for this observe-only surface.
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/implemented/feature/2026-06-21-subagent-capability-seam.md.
See src/types.ts for the full contracts.