Feature request: Add subagent-style progress rendering for skill execution

Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Apr 4, 2026 by gopal-wq Closed May 14, 2026

Summary

Skills currently execute with no visible progress UI — they're transparent to the user. In contrast, subagents show a rich progress experience with animated spinners, task name/status, token tracking, and completion notifications. Skill execution should get similar treatment.

Current Behavior

When a skill (e.g., /optimize, /fix, /inspect) is invoked:

  • No spinner or progress indicator is shown
  • No token count or effort level display
  • No status updates during execution
  • The user sees no feedback until the skill produces output

Desired Behavior

Skill execution should show progress similar to subagents:

  • Animated spinner with the skill name (e.g., "Running /optimize...")
  • Token tracking showing context usage during skill execution
  • Status updates as the skill progresses through stages
  • Completion notification when the skill finishes
  • Colored indicators matching the existing subagent color scheme

Context

The subagent progress rendering has been significantly improved over recent releases (per CHANGELOG):

  • Spinner with effort level display
  • activeForm field for custom status text (with fallback to task subject)
  • Memory-optimized progress payloads during context compaction
  • Custom spinner colors per agent

Skills would benefit from reusing these same components rather than remaining invisible during execution.

Use Case

As a user running complex skills like /fix (which orchestrates multiple sub-operations) or /optimize (which loads references, analyzes code, and generates reports), I want to see real-time progress so I know the skill is working and roughly how far along it is.

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