Compact agent view shows contradictory state and hides agent questions from user
Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Apr 9, 2026 by jfrome1 Closed Apr 12, 2026
Bug Description
When multiple agents run in parallel and the UI is in compact/non-verbose mode (the default collapsed view), two issues occur:
- Child agent lines show "Done" but the parent line still reads "Running N agents..." -- contradictory status that makes it unclear whether work is actually complete.
- When an agent's verbose output contains questions directed at the user (e.g., asking which search approach to take), those questions are not surfaced in compact mode. The user has no way to see or respond to them without manually expanding the view.
Steps to Reproduce
- Start a Claude Code session
- Trigger a prompt that spawns 3+ agents in parallel (e.g., research tasks with
run_in_background: false) - Observe the compact view -- agents that finish show "Done" on their line, but the parent still shows "Running N agents... (ctrl+o to expand)"
- If any agent's verbose output includes a question or prompt for the user, it is not visible in compact mode
Expected Behavior
- Parent status line should reflect that child agents have completed (e.g., "2 of 3 agents done" or update to "Running 1 agent..." as they finish)
- Questions or prompts from agents that require user input should be surfaced in compact mode, or the view should auto-expand when user input is needed
Actual Behavior
Screenshot of the compact view:
Running 3 agents... (ctrl+o to expand)
├─ Agent (Research CC scheduled triggers) · 11 tool uses · 27.8k tokens
│ ⎿ Fetch: https://claudefa.st/blog/guide/development/schedu…
├─ Agent (Research Cowork scheduled tasks) · 22 tool uses · 34.1k tokens
│ ⎿ Done
└─ Explore (Read CC schedule skill) · 6 tool uses · 27.6k tokens
⎿ Done
Two agents are "Done" but the parent says "Running 3 agents." The first agent was waiting for user input (tool use approval) that was invisible in this view.
Environment
- Platform: Windows 11
- Claude Code version: 2.1.97
- Model: claude-opus-4-6 (1M context)
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