[BUG] Task Tools Do Not Load

Broken for 2 days now!

TaskCreate is not available in this session. The search loaded some similarly named tools, but none of them is it:

• TaskOutput — retrieves output from a running/completed background task (shell, agent, remote session)
• TaskStop — stops a running background task by ID

These are for managing background processes, not task lists. TaskCreate, TaskUpdate, and TaskList — the task-list tools that the framework rules reference (e.g., the /work execution rule's two-phase task creation and compaction-recovery pattern) — don't exist in this harness build, and no equivalent todo-list tool (like TodoWrite) is present either.

EDIT / RESOLVED for my case. This turned out to be my own misconfiguration, not the bug tracked in this issue. I am leaving the original report below because the failure mode looks identical from the inside, and the diagnostic step that actually found it may help others.

Root cause

My Desktop session was running as a custom agent that came from a plugin I had uploaded to the app. An agent definition carries a tools: frontmatter field, and that field acts as an allowlist for the entire main thread:

---
name: newsletter-coach
tools: Skill, Read, Write, Bash, Grep, Glob
model: inherit
---

Agent (and Task) are not in that list, so the session genuinely had no subagent tool and correctly said so. Disabling the plugin fixed it immediately: asking "can you create subagents in this session?" now answers "yes, via the Agent tool."

Corrections to my report below

• My claim that "the tool is being withheld inside the harness or server-side, not by local configuration" was wrong. It was local configuration. I inspected the spawned CLI's flags but never checked the active agent definition, which is where the restriction lived.
• DISABLE_GROWTHBOOK=1, CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TASKS and CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TODO_TOOLS were all irrelevant to my problem. Two notes on those anyway, since they came up in this thread: CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TASKS is only ever tested against false, so setting it to true is a no-op, and DISABLE_GROWTHBOOK silently disables Remote Control.

Tip for anyone on macOS Desktop who "cannot use subagents"

Before chasing feature flags or env vars, check whether your session is running as an agent with a restricted tool list.

1. Ask the session to list its available tools. If you get back a short set such as Skill, Read, Write, Bash and little else, that is an agent tools: allowlist, not a feature flag. A normal session exposes Agent, ToolSearch, Workflow, Artifact and many more.
2. Disable or uninstall your uploaded plugins, one at a time, and start a fresh session after each.
3. To keep the plugin, delete the tools: line from its agent definition so the agent inherits all tools, then re-upload it.

Note that the app's copies of the plugin under ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/... are per-session and get regenerated, so edit the plugin you uploaded rather than those caches.

---

<details>
<summary>Original report, kept for context</summary>

Still reproducible, and also affects the Claude Desktop app (macOS, bundled Claude Code 2.1.234, Code tab).

Symptoms

• In desktop Code-tab sessions, the model's tool list contains no Task/Agent tool at all. ToolSearch is also absent, so the "tool is deferred, load it via ToolSearch" explanation does not apply: there is nothing to load it with.
• Asking Claude to spawn any subagent fails; it correctly reports the tool is not available.

What I ruled out

• DISABLE_GROWTHBOOK=1 (the workaround reported earlier in this thread) does not fix it in the desktop app. I set it via the env block in ~/.claude/settings.json, restarted the app, and verified inside the session that the variable was active (echo $DISABLE_GROWTHBOOK -> 1). The Task tool was still missing.
• The desktop app's spawned CLI process (.../Application Support/Claude/claude-code/2.1.234/claude.app/Contents/MacOS/claude --output-format stream-json --input-format stream-json ...) has no --disallowedTools and no tool-restricting flags, so the tool is being withheld inside the harness or server-side, not by local configuration.
• Settings file is valid JSON; no managed settings in play.

Side note for others trying the workaround: the CLI binary contains the string "Remote Control requires feature-flag evaluation, which is disabled because DISABLE_GROWTHBOOK is set", so this env var silently breaks Remote Control. Not a safe workaround if you rely on remote triggers.

Would appreciate a status update. If subagents are intentionally unavailable in the desktop app for now, it would help to have that stated in the desktop docs.

</details>

Still reproducible, and also affects the Claude Desktop app (macOS, bundled Claude Code 2.1.234, Code tab). Symptoms In desktop Code-tab sessions, the model's tool list contains no Task/Agent tool at all. ToolSearch is also absent, so the "tool is deferred, load it via ToolSearch" explanation does not apply: there is nothing to load it with. Asking Claude to spawn any subagent fails; it correctly reports the tool is not available. What I ruled out DISABLE_GROWTHBOOK=1 (the workaround reported earlier in this thread) does not fix it in the desktop app. I set it via the env block in ~/.claude/settings.json, restarted the app, and verified inside the session that the variable was active (echo $DISABLE_GROWTHBOOK -> 1). The Task tool was still missing. The desktop app's spawned CLI process (.../Application Support/Claude/claude-code/2.1.234/claude.app/Contents/MacOS/claude --output-format stream-json --input-format stream-json ...) has no --disallowedTools and no tool-restricting flags, so the tool is being withheld inside the harness or server-side, not by local configuration. * Settings file is valid JSON; no managed settings in play. Side note for others trying the workaround: the CLI binary contains the string "Remote Control requires feature-flag evaluation, which is disabled because DISABLE_GROWTHBOOK is set", so this env var silently breaks Remote Control. Not a safe workaround if you rely on remote triggers. Would appreciate a status update. If subagents are intentionally unavailable in the desktop app for now, it would help to have that stated in the desktop docs.

These work for me. You need these (the 2nd setting likely being the most important):

"env": {
"CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TASKS": "true",
"CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TODO_TOOLS": "true"
},

From Claude desktop:

TaskList

Task list: empty — no tasks currently tracked.

ToolSearch

ToolSearch needs a query — what should I look for? (e.g. select:TaskCreate,TaskUpdate to load specific tools by name, or keywords like "web fetch" to search.)

If you're probing which deferred tools actually work in this session, say so and I'll load and smoke-test a set.

> list tools

Loaded now (callable immediately)

Tool Purpose
Bash Run shell commands (Git Bash)
Read / Write / Edit File I/O
Glob / Grep File and content search
Agent Spawn subagents
Skill Invoke a skill / slash command
Workflow Multi-agent orchestration (opt-in only)
Artifact Publish HTML/MD to claude.ai
SendUserFile Surface a file to you
AskUserQuestion Structured clarifying question
ReportFindings Code-review finding output
ScheduleWakeup /loop dynamic pacing
SuggestSkills Recommend uninstalled skills
ToolSearch Load deferred tool schemas
TaskList Loaded this session — returned empty

MCP servers (loaded)

mcp__ccd_session__* — mark_chapter, spawn_task, dismiss_task, read_widget_context
mcp__Claude_Browser__ — in-app browser: navigate, computer, read_page, find, form_input, get_page_text, javascript_tool, read_console_messages, read_network_requests, resize_window, tabs_, preview_start/stop/list/logs
mcp__visualize__* — read_me, show_widget

Deferred (name only — need ToolSearch to load)

Tasks: TaskCreate, TaskGet, TaskUpdate, TaskOutput, TaskStop
Planning: EnterPlanMode, ExitPlanMode, EnterWorktree, ExitWorktree
Scheduling: CronCreate, CronList, CronDelete, Monitor, PushNotification, RemoteTrigger
Web: WebFetch, WebSearch
Skills/plugins: ListSkills, SearchSkills, ListPlugins, SearchPlugins, SuggestPluginInstall
Misc: NotebookEdit, SendMessage, DesignSync
MCP (deferred): claude-in-chrome__ (real Chrome), ccd_session_mgmt__, ccd_directory__, mcp-registry__, scheduled-tasks__*, terminal__read_terminal

Note on the task tools: per your memory notes, TaskCreate/TaskGet/TaskUpdate are gated by remote flag tengu_rosy_wren with local override CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TODO_TOOLS=true. TaskList loaded and ran fine here, so the gate is open this session.