@deepseek-ai/dsh-subagent-fork-in-process
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The fork provider creates an in-process child seeded with the parent's completed conversation turns. It shares all run mechanics with spawn; the session seed is the only behavioral difference.
Seed boundary
The parent's current tool-calling turn is still open when a subagent starts: its log contains the assistant tool call but not the matching tool result or turn/end. Copying that raw log would give the child an invalid, unbalanced session.
Fork therefore computes the contiguous prefix ending at the last turn/end. The child sees all completed parent turns and none of the in-flight turn. If the parent has not completed a turn yet, the seed is empty and the child behaves like a fresh spawn.
The seed transfers conversation history only. The child still receives a fresh flat registration scope; it does not inherit the parent's tool restrictions or authority.
Start and capabilities
start(request) passes the completed-turn seed to startInProcessRun and awaits child publication. The shared driver owns cancellation, depth, customization, result reading, and disposal.
Fork advertises { agentOptions: true, outputSchema: true, depthLimit: true, toolFilter: true, persona: true }, identical to spawn.
Config
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
providerName |
Registry name on ctx.subagents (default fork). |
See dsh-subagent-spawn-in-process for the run lifecycle, model inheritance, and depth tracking — all shared. |
Model Experience
Child-agent history and envelope
What the model sees
The child receives the parent's balanced completed-turn surface prefix, then the new task content verbatim. A configured persona shadows prompt text in the child's fresh scope; a tool restriction filters its global wire schemas, executable lookup, and Code Mode SDK bindings but not standalone guidance. The parent's tool view and authority are not inherited. An optional structured-output request adds its child-only contract. The parent's current in-flight turn is excluded.
Token effect
Forking duplicates retained completed history into separate child requests; the child then accumulates its own tokens independently. Persona changes repeated prompt cost, filtering changes schema or generated SDK cost, and a first-turn fork has no inherited history.
KV Cache effect
The child may reuse the inherited byte-identical prefix under the same provider and model. Persona, tool-filter, generated-SDK, or route changes may invalidate reuse before inherited history; later child history is append-only. The base bundle and ACP/headless examples bind this provider to backgroundMode: one-shot, because a continuable child additionally carries the child-scoped report tool and its prompt section — deltas that precede the inherited history and so invalidate all of it. The CLI presets retain continuable fork and therefore accept that prefix loss (the cache-preserving fork Agent Note).
Parent tool result, indirectly
What the model sees
The parent receives only the child's own final output through dsh-tool-subagent, not the inherited prefix or intermediate work.
Token effect
Parent input grows by one data-dependent final result retained until compaction.
KV Cache effect
Append-only; newly visible content follows the reusable request prefix and does not invalidate existing KV-cache entries.
Known Limitations and Deferred Work
- The seed is a one-time snapshot — the child sees the parent's completed turns as of the fork and nothing the parent logs afterwards; there is no live context sharing.
- Fork lifecycle policy differs by composition — the base bundle and ACP/headless examples use one-shot fork to preserve prefix reuse, while the CLI presets use continuable fork and accept the child-scoped
reportreturn channel invalidating that prefix. Making continuable fork cache-preserving requires the child system prompt and tool schemas to match the parent's byte for byte. Rationale and the reintroduction condition: the cache-preserving fork Agent Note. - Shipped fork tools do not expose child LLM route selection — they inherit the parent's provider and model so the copied history remains eligible for KV Cache reuse. Route selection stays disabled until a change can preserve reuse or expose a bounded recomputation cost; the model-selected route Agent Note owns that separate restriction.