[BUG] Desktop app: "View transcript" for a nested subagent (spawned by another subagent) shows only its prompt
What's wrong?
In the desktop app's Claude Code tab, the Background tasks panel lists subagents that were spawned by another subagent (spawnDepth: 2) and shows their live token and tool-use counts. But "View transcript" on such an agent shows only its initial prompt and a spinner: no tool calls, messages or results, either while it runs or after it finishes.
The data exists
Each nested agent's subagents/agent-<id>.jsonl holds the full transcript (144–156 lines each in our case), and its agent-<id>.meta.json records the correct parentAgentId and spawnDepth: 2. First-level subagents (spawned by the main session) render correctly in the same panel, so this looks like a viewer gap, not missing data.
Steps to reproduce
- From the main session, spawn a background subagent with the Agent tool.
- Have that subagent spawn one or more subagents of its own.
- In the Background tasks panel, click "View transcript" on a second-level agent.
Expected
The full transcript, as for first-level agents.
Actual
Only the prompt that started the agent, plus a spinner.
Related
#98118 — the VS Code agent map mis-renders nested subagents (empty tool-call list, wrong parent) although the on-disk data is correct. This appears to be the same nested-agent gap on the desktop surface.
Environment
- Claude Code 2.1.286
- Desktop app (Windows) driving sessions in WSL2 (Linux 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2)