[Feature Request] Add per-subagent observability (model, effort) to /agents Running tab and agent JSON output
Status Open
Reported on v2.1.193
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 3 comments · opened Jun 29, 2026
Bug Description
Subagent observability gap. There's no way to see live per-subagent model and effort without blocking. /agents Running tab queues behind the busy main loop and doesn't show model/effort columns. claude agents runs out-of-process but explicitly excludes in-session subagents. Requests: (1) add model + effort columns to the /agents Running tab, (2) include in-session subagents in the out-of-process agent view (or expose them via claude agents --json), (3) add model/effort to that JSON output.
Environment Info
- Platform: darwin
- Terminal: vscode
- Version: 2.1.193
- Feedback ID: c96c8d57-84d7-41c3-b447-fe6987c921be
Errors
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3 Comments
The observability gap you're describing is the same problem from a different angle than the cost runaway issues (#72127, #72080): in all three cases, the root cause is that the operator has no live view of what agents are consuming or how they're executing.
Per-subagent model + effort visibility matters specifically because subagents can silently run at a higher model tier than the parent (or inherit effort settings that weren't meant for a background sweep). Without it, the only signal you get is the final token count after the session ends.
A few things that would make the /agents Running tab genuinely useful here:
The out-of-process claude agents path is the right place to expose this for in-session subagents too, since that's where external monitoring tools hook in. The JSON output gap matters there - without model/effort in the struct, anything building on top of claude agents --json has to scrape UI or wait for the session to close.
For context: we've been working around this at the orchestration layer (Claudeverse) by writing per-agent metadata to a spend_log at spawn time and again at completion. It works but it shouldn't need to be a userspace concern - the platform has all this information and it should surface it.
Strong +1 on this feature request.
This gap is real and it compounds fast. Once you have 4+ subagents running in parallel, you lose the ability to make informed decisions mid-session: you don't know whether to wait (the agents are burning through tokens productively) or intervene (one is stuck in a reasoning loop at xhigh effort).
The model column is particularly useful for mixed-model workflows - running some subtasks on Haiku for speed while reserving Opus for synthesis - because right now you can't verify the routing worked without blocking to query each agent individually.
A few things that would make this actionable:
claude agents --jsoninclude in-session subagents so external monitoring scripts can read it without interrupting the sessionOn the out-of-process vs in-session split: this is an architectural constraint but worth solving. The cleanest path might be a lightweight IPC socket the main session advertises that external processes can query for the current agent roster + stats without needing to parse tmux pane output.
+1 for the fleet-table case specifically: running many background sessions via
claude agents, model + effort are the two settings that most affect cost/behaviour yet aren't shown — you must open each session to see them. Two read-only columns appended afterage(or a toggle) would fully cover it. Same data the harness already has from --model/--effort.