Subagent SendMessage triggers approval popup despite bypassPermissions defaultMode

Bug

When defaultMode: bypassPermissions is set in settings.json, spawning background agents and sending them messages via SendMessage still triggers approval popups for the user.

Settings

Both ~/.claude/settings.json and the project .claude/settings.json have:

"permissions": {
  "defaultMode": "bypassPermissions"
}

Steps to reproduce

1. Set defaultMode: bypassPermissions in settings
2. Spawn a background agent with the Agent tool
3. Send a message to the agent with SendMessage
4. Approval popup appears despite bypassPermissions

Expected behavior

Agent-to-agent communication via SendMessage should be auto-approved when defaultMode: bypassPermissions is set. It is an internal operation with no user-visible side effects.

Actual behavior

Approval popup interrupts the user for every SendMessage call, even mid-run on background agents.

Impact

Makes autonomous multi-agent workflows unusable — every agent redirect requires manual user approval, defeating the purpose of background agents and bypassPermissions mode.

Environment

• Platform: Linux (WSL2)
• Claude Code CLI