The exact-disposer fix (5fbac8be B1) repaired agents.register but left the same wrapper (return () => void dispose()) at seven sibling sites: tools.register, tools.restrict, systemPrompt.section/tools/variable, agents.setFactory, and subagents.registerProvider. A wrapper makes correct composite usage unrepresentable — the exact disposer cannot be recovered, so a generator effect yielding it leaves the inner effect disposing as a CONCURRENT SIBLING on owner unload, silently reproducing B1's ordering corruption. The exact disposer serves both usages (composite-nestable AND fire-and-forget callable); all seven now return it, typed () => Promise<void> | void, with the convention pinned by a discriminating test: an async-link composite probe that passes with the exact disposer and observes the sibling unregistration firing mid-drain with a wrapper. Re-auditing also surfaced that B1 itself SHIPPED a full-lint failure: it changed register()'s return type without updating cross-file consumers (agent.spec.ts dispose() statements, tool-bash's disposer list), which the staged-scoped pre-commit lint never saw — pnpm run lint was red at HEAD. Those three sites and this change's own fallout are fixed together: tests now await disposers (stronger — they observe the full unwind), sync paths void them, and the two annotation sites carry the honest union type. agents.register's README line had drifted the same way (B1 updated the JSDoc, not the README) — all seven README signatures now match; services catalog regenerated.
@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent
The subagent seam: an abstract SubagentService (ctx.subagents) for an agent delegating work to another agent. A subagent is a child agent; a SubagentProvider is one transport for running it.
This package is the interface third of the capability seam, split so each concern evolves (and swaps) independently:
| Package | Role |
|---|---|
@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent (this) |
the interface: registry service + vocabulary types |
@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent-spawn |
an implementation: fresh in-process child |
@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent-fork |
an implementation: in-process child seeded from the parent's log |
@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent-acp |
an implementation: ACP client driving another process |
@deepseek-ai/dsh-tool-subagent |
the model-facing tool over ctx.subagents |
Unlike the bash seam (one executor per context, second load throws), multiple providers coexist here. Each registers under a unique name and a caller picks one by name — the shape mirrors the LLM adapter registry (LlmService.registerAdapter), not the single-service bash executor. This is the requirement that rules out the bash shape: an agent may want an in-process child for a cheap subtask and an out-of-process ACP child for an isolated one, in the same runtime.
Service API (ctx.subagents)
| Member | Semantics |
|---|---|
registerProvider(provider) |
Register under provider.name. Throws SubagentError('DUPLICATE_PROVIDER') on a name clash. Effect-scoped (HMR-safe); returns the disposer. |
getProvider(name) |
Look up a provider (undefined if absent). |
list() |
Registered provider names (insertion order). |
start(name, request) |
Resolve the provider (NO_PROVIDER if absent), validate every requested START-TIME capability (UNSUPPORTED_CAPABILITY for the first unmet one — before any child is created), then delegate to provider.start and emit subagent/start / subagent/end around the run. |
Capabilities: two kinds, discovered two ways
- Start-time features (
outputSchema,depthLimit,toolFilter/persona) are a staticprovider.capabilitiesdescriptor, checked by the service BEFORE a run exists. A request that needs one the provider lacks is rejected loud (UNSUPPORTED_CAPABILITY), never accepted-then-ignored. - Runtime features (steering, resume) are optional methods on
SubagentRun(sendMessage?,resume?). The method's presence IS the capability; TS narrowing is the discovery mechanism — a consumer cannot call an absent method without narrowing first, so there is no silent degradation path.
Beside capabilities sits one DESCRIPTIVE fact, not validated by the service: provider.inheritsParentContext — whether a child sees the parent conversation (fork: true — seeded with the completed-turn prefix; spawn/acp: false). The model-facing consumer (dsh-tool-subagent) derives truthful tool wording from it.
Run lifecycle
provider.start(request) returns a SubagentRun: a handle with a result promise, cancel(), dispose(), and the optional runtime methods. result resolves with a SubagentResult (output, optional structured, stopReason) — it does not reject on a child-level failure (a model/transport failure resolves with stopReason: 'error'), so the consumer maps a non-completed reason to an isError tool result. The consumer MUST dispose() on every path (success, error, abort) to reach child quiescence and avoid leaking an idle child / session.
The service also announces provider lifecycle: subagent/provider-added (the live provider) fires after a registration and subagent/provider-removed (the name) after an unregistration, so a consumer deriving state from a named provider (the model-facing tool wording) mirrors registry membership instead of assuming load order — the cordis Loader starts sibling plugins concurrently, so "listed earlier" does not mean "registered earlier". The service emits subagent/start (payload SubagentRunInfo) and subagent/end (payload SubagentRunEndInfo) around the run — both observe-only (plain emits; subagent/end fires from a detached .then and awaits no listener). subagent/end carries lastAssistantMessage (a deep clone of the child's final output) on the settle path, absent when the run rejected at the infrastructure level. The clone keeps the surface observe-only: the end emit fires from a detached .then before the caller's await run.result resumes, so a shared reference would let a mutating listener corrupt the caller's result. A subagent/start listener can still reach the live child via ctx.agents.get(info.id); a subagent/end listener can only observe (the run has settled). Any run-affecting decision (continuation, injection that changes the run) is out of scope for this observe-only surface.
Scope (first cut)
The consumer collects synchronously: it starts a run and awaits result. Steering (sendMessage) is part of the contract but intentionally unused. Background / poll / spill semantics are deferred to a future redesign unifying long-running-tool handling across subagents and bash. See the RFC: docs/rfc/implemented/feature/2026-06-21-subagent-capability-seam.md.
See src/types.ts for the full contracts.