Feature request: claude agents @<repo> mention should include git submodules registered in .gitmodules

Summary

When running claude agents from inside a monorepo that uses git submodules, the @<repo> mention picker can't see the submodule repos. The doc defines the picker's enumeration source as "a repository under the directory you opened agent view from" — but in a submodule-organized monorepo, the things I want to target as sessions live one or two levels deeper under organizing parent directories, each a real, independent git repo.

So the workflow Claude Code's agent view is built around (parallel sessions in sibling repos) is silently unavailable to anyone using a submodule monorepo structure — and there is no native way to even reach those repos from agent view.

My actual structure

~/ghost                              ← monorepo root (where I run `claude agents`)
├── .claude/
├── .git
├── .gitmodules                      ← registers every submodule below
├── CLAUDE.md
├── lab-videos/
│
├── forks/                           ← submodule parent #1
│   ├── CLAUDE.md
│   └── openscreen/                  ← submodule (separate repo, own .git, own remote)
│
├── nfrith-repos/                    ← submodule parent #2
│   ├── CLAUDE.md
│   ├── als/                         ← submodule
│   ├── als-stable/                  ← submodule
│   └── test-marketplace/            ← submodule
│
└── repos/                           ← submodule parent #3
    ├── CLAUDE.md
    ├── arp/                         ← submodule
    └── kyberbot/                    ← submodule

forks/, nfrith-repos/, and repos/ are organizing dirs that group submodules by purpose. Each */ underneath is a real submodule — own .git, own history, own remote — and all of them are registered in ~/ghost/.gitmodules.

The friction

Running claude agents from ~/ghost:

• The @<repo> mention picker only enumerates direct children of ~/ghost that look like repos. That returns lab-videos/ etc. but does not return als/, openscreen/, arp/, kyberbot/, or any other submodule.
• I dispatch work into these submodules all the time. They are the primary unit of work for me. Claude Code's whole agent-view UX (parallel sessions, per-repo dispatch) is exactly what I need for these — but the picker can't see them.
• The workarounds are all bad:
• Open claude agents from one level deeper (e.g. from ~/ghost/nfrith-repos/) → loses access to siblings in forks/ and repos/, and loses access to the monorepo root itself
• --add-dir the parent dirs → does not extend the @<repo> mention pool (and per the bug I filed in #61431, the second --add-dir is silently dropped anyway)
• Move every repo out of the monorepo → defeats the entire reason I use submodules

Ask

Make claude agents submodule-aware. When agent view is opened from a directory that has a .gitmodules, enumerate the registered submodules as additional @<repo> mention targets.

Concretely, when run from ~/ghost, the picker should surface:

• @lab-videos (existing — direct child repo, today)
• @forks/openscreen (new — submodule, registered in .gitmodules)
• @nfrith-repos/als (new — submodule)
• @nfrith-repos/als-stable (new — submodule)
• @nfrith-repos/test-marketplace (new — submodule)
• @repos/arp (new — submodule)
• @repos/kyberbot (new — submodule)

The mention syntax can be @<path-relative-to-monorepo-root> (showing the organizing structure, e.g. @nfrith-repos/als) or just the leaf name (@als) if the leaf is unambiguous — match whatever fits the rest of the picker's conventions.

Reading .gitmodules is cheap (git submodule status --recursive is the canonical command) and has zero false positives — submodules are explicitly declared. This is the right enumeration source for monorepo-shaped projects.

Why this matters

Submodules are not a niche pattern — they're the standard way to organize a monorepo of independent repos that need to be versioned together. The current agent view design implicitly assumes a flat sibling-repo layout, which means anyone using submodules (probably a large chunk of multi-repo users) is locked out of the agent view's core workflow.

The feature also dovetails with the worktree-first workflow Claude Code is already pushing: a session dispatched into @nfrith-repos/als should still get its own worktree under .claude/worktrees/, just rooted at the submodule's directory. The submodule's own .git and the host repo's .git already coexist cleanly with worktrees, so no new isolation mechanics are needed.

Related

• Bug: claude agents silently drops the second --add-dir (#61431) — the obvious workaround (--add-dir each parent) is broken AND, even if fixed, doesn't extend the mention pool. This issue is the clean fix.
• Feature request: fuzzy match in @<repo> mention picker (#61407) — adjacent: once the submodule pool is enumerated, fuzzy match becomes even more valuable (more entries to navigate).

Thanks!