AgentTeams: idle notifications spam every turn-end with no content change
Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Apr 21, 2026 by tylerlaprade Closed Apr 21, 2026
Observed
Every teammate turn fires a {"type":"idle_notification","from":"<name>","timestamp":"...","idleReason":"available"} to the lead, whether or not the teammate produced new output.
In a 2-hour session with 4 teammates, I counted 40+ idle notifications with no new information — just idleReason: available.
Impact
- Lead burns turns acknowledging ("noted") pings that contain no signal.
- Masks genuine state changes: a real "teammate finished task" message and "teammate idled after no-op" look the same at a glance.
- Linear cost with team size × turn count.
Suggested behavior
Emit idle only when:
- Teammate produced visible output this turn (TaskUpdate, SendMessage, file edit)
- Or teammate transitions from a non-idle state (working → idle for the first time after task completion)
Don't emit on subsequent no-op turns.
Alternative: collapse consecutive idle pings from the same teammate into one.
Env
Claude Code CLI (macOS). CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1. Skill: swarm-team.
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