The second PR of the subagent seam: the two in-process backends that run a
child agent on the same cordis context, reusing the agent factory's quiescent
AgentHandle teardown. Both register on ctx.subagents (PR1's named-provider
registry) and share one run driver.
- dsh-subagent-spawn: a FRESH child via ctx.agents.create — own session, the
parent's model by default (overridable), zero inherited conversation. Also
exports the shared in-process run driver (startInProcessRun): mint ids, stamp
cwd/parentSession-lineage/depth, drive the one-shot (send → whenIdle), read
the last assistant/message + turn/end reason, dispose to quiescence.
- dsh-subagent-fork: a child SEEDED with the parent's balanced completed-turn
prefix (the log up to and including its last turn/end), so the child inherits
context. The in-flight unbalanced turn is excluded — a raw seed would fail the
invariants replay. Proven: a regression test goes red if the boundary seeds
the open turn.
- Seam extension: CreateAgentOptions.seed, threaded through AgentLoop.createAgent
→ ctx.sessions.prepare({ seed }) (the primitive resume already used). This is
the fork-lineage path the TODO(sub-agents) markers anticipated.
- Depth: a merge-extensible AgentOptions.subagentDepth (0 top-level, parent+1 for
a child); the depthLimit capability refuses a spawn past request.maxDepth.
Tests: real-loop unit tests for both backends (mock MODEL only, real loop +
invariants), a multi-subagent test (one parent drives a fork AND a spawn child
then keeps working), and a with-key e2e (a real parent delegates via the
`subagent` tool to a real child that writes a file on disk — world-verified).
100% per-file coverage. The coding-agent demo wires the spawn backend + tool.
Snapshot coverage of nested agents is deferred to a stacked follow-up
(TODO(subagent-snapshots)): dsh-llm-replay is a single global positional cursor
that cannot route calls to a parent vs. a child on one context. Recorded in the
RFC's deferrals and a new AGENTS.md rule: designing a subsystem must design its
test infrastructure END TO END up front, verifying the snapshot/e2e harness can
express the new shape — a gap this plan hit.
dsh-agent-loop
THE concrete agent plugin: ReactLoopAgent and the loop driver. Implements the Agent interface and drives the session/turn/step lifecycle.
This is the only package in the harness that contains concrete loop logic. Everything else is an abstract service or a plugin against extension seams — new behavior goes into plugins, not here.
Service: AgentLoop (ctx key: agentLoop)
Public API
ctx.agentLoop.create(id: string, options?: AgentOptions): ReactLoopAgent— config-driven create: an agent on a fresh per-run session id${id}-session-<uuid>(no cwd). Used forcordis.yml-configured agents. The per-run uuid avoids colliding with the on-disk log a prior run materialized once a durable persistence backend is loaded; each run is a new session (a deliberate demo simplification — a real resume-or-create policy is a TODO). Disposed with the calling fiber.
AgentLoop also implements the AgentFactory seam and registers itself via ctx.agents.setFactory(this), so plugins create/resume agents through ctx.agents (the interface):
ctx.agents.create({ agentId, sessionId, meta?, agentOptions? }): AgentHandle— programmatic create on a caller-suppliedsessionId(e.g. an ACP-generated id), NOT${id}-session. Returns anAgentHandle— the owner disposes it to tear down exactly this agent (stop loop + await quiescence + unregister + remove session).ctx.agents.resume({ agentId, resumeSessionId, agentOptions? }): Promise<AgentHandle>— load a persisted session viactx.sessionPersistence(session persistence) and resume an agent on it. The live session id is the resumed id; turn numbering and derived history continue from the loaded log. Requires a session-persistence backend (NOT hard-injected — non-persistent demos still work;resumerejects with a clear error when persistence is absent). Returns anAgentHandle.
The config-driven ctx.agentLoop.create() path keeps its agent owned by the loop fiber (it discards the handle) — only the programmatic factory callers (the ACP bridge) hold a handle and own per-agent teardown.
Injected services
agents, sessions, llm, tools, systemPrompt — all five interface services.
Configuration (schemastery)
interface Config {
agents: Array<{
id: string // required
model?: string
systemPrompt?: string
}>
}
Agents listed in config are auto-created at startup.
Classes
ReactLoopAgent— the concreteAgentimplementation. Owns the inbox (Inbox), the per-stepAbortController, and the loop driver. Everything observable happens through session events and theagent/*event taxonomy.Inbox— per-agent queued + steering FIFOs (enqueue,steer,drainQueued,drainSteering,waitForQueued).
Loop lifecycle (loop.ts)
One invocation of runLoop() drives one agent for its whole lifetime:
forever:
wait for queued messages (idle)
TURN (error-contained):
drain queued → 'turn/start' → session('user/message')
STEP loop:
drain steering
assembly = systemPrompt.assemble()
request = waterfall agent/request
stream llm.stream(request) → session('assistant/chunk')
message = waterfall agent/step-result
session('assistant/message')
each tool-call: session('tool/call') → tools.execute() → session('tool/result')
drain steering → session('steering/message')
cont = waterfall agent/turn-continuation
if !cont: break
session('turn/end')
await session/flush
re-enqueue leftover steering as queued
idle unless more queued
Error containment: a throwing plugin ends the turn, never the loop. Dispose mid-turn emits agent/status('disposed') and ends with reason disposed. A step that hits the model's output-token ceiling makes the turn end max-tokens (the rule: any max-tokens step in the turn surfaces as max-tokens; disposed/aborted/error still take precedence) — distinct from a clean completed stop.
Cancellation: agent.cancel() is the single public stop primitive — it clears the queued + steering FIFOs, aborts the in-flight step, and drives a turn-scoped marker the driver checks at every point a turn could start or continue (right after the idle wait, after the running flip, before each step, and at the continuation gate) so a turn about to start is dropped. A cancelled turn ends aborted; a queued-but-not-started prompt never runs and cannot be batched into the cancelled turn. The marker is reset once per loop iteration, so a cancel governs exactly one turn and never leaks onto a later prompt. (The loop still aborts its own per-step AbortController directly on disposal and from cancel(); that controller is loop-internal, not a public verb.)
What is NOT here
Everything that goes beyond "call the model, run the tools, repeat" belongs to plugins listening on the event taxonomy:
- Hooks:
agent/request,agent/step-result,tools/execute,agent/turn-continuation - Compaction:
agent/request - Sandbox, permission, plan mode:
tools/execute - Sub-agents: TODO seam on
AgentLoop.create() - Persistence:
session/event+session/flush - UI:
agent/stream-chunk+agent/*events