--- title: "Subagent management" canonical: "https://canmyagentuse.com/features/subagent-lifecycle-controls" contentKind: "feature" locale: "en" description: "List, inspect, pause, resume, cancel, or retry child-agent tasks." llmSummary: "Subagent management covers visibility into active children and documented cancel, pause, resume, retry, or limit behavior. Each operation is recorded separately as a qualifier." publishedAt: "2026-08-28T00:00:00.000Z" updatedAt: "2026-08-28T00:00:00.000Z" verifiedAt: "2026-08-28" tags: ["runtime","subagents","supervision","cancellation"] --- # Subagent management Subagent management covers visibility into active children and documented cancel, pause, resume, retry, or limit behavior. Each operation is recorded separately as a qualifier. - HTML: https://canmyagentuse.com/features/subagent-lifecycle-controls - JSON: https://canmyagentuse.com/api/v1/features/subagent-lifecycle-controls.json - Markdown: https://canmyagentuse.com/features/subagent-lifecycle-controls.md Terminology basis: **Common product term** — https://code.claude.com/docs/en/sub-agents. ## Current support at a glance Subagent management: 0 supported, 5 partial, 0 unsupported, 26 unreviewed across 31 cataloged products. - Reviewed current products: 5 of 31 - Supported: 0 - Partial: 5 - Unsupported: 0 - Unreviewed: 26 - Not applicable: 0 Unknown or unreviewed means insufficient published evidence; it does not mean unsupported. This row tracks supervision of child-agent executions after delegation. At minimum, evidence should show how active and queued children are identified and whether cancellation propagates to their tools and descendants. Record pause, resume, retry, deadline, timeout, priority, log inspection, partial-result recovery, and orphan cleanup separately. A UI that hides a child after cancel while its tools continue running is only partial support. ## Catalog context - Category: [runtime](/categories/runtime.md) - Terminology basis: Common product term - Aliases: subagent cancellation, child task control, agent supervision - Family: [Subagents](/features/subagents.md) - Siblings: [Concurrent subagents](/features/subagent-concurrency.md), [Nested subagents](/features/nested-subagents.md), [Per-subagent model selection](/features/subagent-model-selection.md), [Subagent context](/features/subagent-context-isolation.md), [Subagent delegation](/features/subagent-delegation.md), [Subagent MCP access](/features/subagent-mcp-access.md), [Subagent permissions](/features/subagent-approval-boundaries.md), [Subagent results](/features/subagent-result-handoff.md), [Subagent write access](/features/subagent-write-access.md) ## Compatibility assertions Unknown means insufficient published evidence; it does not mean unsupported. ### ChatGPT (web) - Harness: [ChatGPT](/harnesses/chatgpt-web.md) - current: **Partial** - Target: hosted-observation — 2026-08-28 ChatGPT Work web documentation observation; observed 2026-08-28 - Environment: hosted-default - Constraint (runtime): Active and Done lists and completed-result inspection are documented; the web sidebar cannot stop or steer an individual child - Evidence: [OpenAI — Subagents in ChatGPT and Codex](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/agent-configuration/subagents) — documented; observed 2026-08-28 - Qualification note 2: Evidence checked 2026-08-28: ChatGPT Work exposes read-only Active and Done child lists; local Codex lets operators inspect child threads and ask the parent to steer, stop, or close them, with CLI thread switching through /agent. - preview: **Unknown** ### Claude (web) - Harness: [Claude](/harnesses/claude-web.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Gemini (web) - Harness: [Gemini](/harnesses/gemini-web.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Copilot (web) - Harness: [Copilot](/harnesses/copilot-web.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Grok (web) - Harness: [Grok](/harnesses/grok-web.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Grok Bot (desktop) - Harness: [Grok Bot](/harnesses/grok-bot-desktop.md) - current: **Unknown** ### Perplexity (web) - Harness: [Perplexity](/harnesses/perplexity-web.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Le Chat (web) - Harness: [Le Chat](/harnesses/le-chat.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Devin (web) - Harness: [Devin](/harnesses/devin-web.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Replit Agent (web) - Harness: [Replit Agent](/harnesses/replit-agent.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### ChatGPT (desktop) - Harness: [ChatGPT](/harnesses/chatgpt-desktop.md) - current: **Partial** - Target: dated-documentation — current ChatGPT desktop documentation; observed 2026-08-28 - Environment: local-default - Constraint (runtime): child threads are inspectable and the operator can ask Codex to steer, stop, or close them; pause, retry, deadlines, and priority are not established - Evidence: [OpenAI — Subagents in ChatGPT and Codex](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/agent-configuration/subagents) — documented; observed 2026-08-28 - Qualification note 2: Evidence checked 2026-08-28: ChatGPT Work exposes read-only Active and Done child lists; local Codex lets operators inspect child threads and ask the parent to steer, stop, or close them, with CLI thread switching through /agent. - preview: **Unknown** ### Claude (desktop) - Harness: [Claude](/harnesses/claude-desktop.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Cursor (desktop) - Harness: [Cursor](/harnesses/cursor.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### OpenWork Desktop (desktop) - Harness: [OpenWork Desktop](/harnesses/openwork-desktop.md) - current: **Unknown** ### Copilot Chat (desktop) - Harness: [Copilot Chat](/harnesses/vscode-copilot.md) - current: **Partial** - Target: dated-documentation — current VS Code subagent documentation; observed 2026-08-28 - Environment: local-default - Constraint (runtime): live inspection and persistent read-only child records are documented; follow-up, resume, pause, retry, timeout, and cancellation controls are not established - Evidence: [Visual Studio Code — Subagents in Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/agents/run/subagents) — documented; observed 2026-08-28 - Qualification note 3: Evidence checked 2026-08-28: VS Code exposes each running child, current tool, elapsed time, prompt, full tool-call details, and returned result as a persistent read-only child chat; each child invocation is stateless and cannot receive follow-up messages. - preview: **Unknown** ### Chrome WebMCP origin trial (desktop) - Harness: [Chrome WebMCP origin trial](/harnesses/chrome-webmcp-preview.md) - current: **Unknown** ### Windsurf (desktop) - Harness: [Windsurf](/harnesses/windsurf.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Zed Agent (desktop) - Harness: [Zed Agent](/harnesses/zed-agent.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Continue (desktop) - Harness: [Continue](/harnesses/continue.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Cline (desktop) - Harness: [Cline](/harnesses/cline.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### JetBrains AI (desktop) - Harness: [JetBrains AI](/harnesses/jetbrains-ai.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Warp (desktop) - Harness: [Warp](/harnesses/warp.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Claude CLI (cli) - Harness: [Claude CLI](/harnesses/claude-cli.md) - current: **Partial** - Target: dated-documentation — current Claude Code subagent and parallel-agent documentation; observed 2026-08-28 - Environment: local-default - Constraint (runtime): list, inspect, background, attach, stop, resume, and maximum-turn controls are documented; a general pause operation and explicit retry contract are not established - Evidence: [Anthropic — Create custom subagents](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/sub-agents) — documented; observed 2026-08-28 - Evidence: [Anthropic — Run agents in parallel](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/agents) — documented; observed 2026-08-28 - Qualification note 1: Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Claude Code lists live subagents and background tasks, supports foreground/background execution, stopping and attaching to background work, resuming a subagent by ID, and a per-subagent `maxTurns` limit. Pause and retry semantics are not fully documented. - preview: **Unknown** ### ChatGPT CLI (cli) - Harness: [ChatGPT CLI](/harnesses/chatgpt-cli.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Codex CLI (cli) - Harness: [Codex CLI](/harnesses/codex-cli.md) - current: **Partial** - Target: dated-documentation — current Codex CLI documentation; observed 2026-08-28 - Environment: local-default - Constraint (runtime): /agent switches among active threads and Codex accepts steer, stop, and close requests; pause, retry, deadlines, and priority are not established - Evidence: [OpenAI — Subagents in ChatGPT and Codex](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/agent-configuration/subagents) — documented; observed 2026-08-28 - Qualification note 2: Evidence checked 2026-08-28: ChatGPT Work exposes read-only Active and Done child lists; local Codex lets operators inspect child threads and ask the parent to steer, stop, or close them, with CLI thread switching through /agent. - preview: **Unknown** ### OpenCode (cli) - Harness: [OpenCode](/harnesses/opencode.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Gemini CLI (cli) - Harness: [Gemini CLI](/harnesses/gemini-cli.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Aider (cli) - Harness: [Aider](/harnesses/aider.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Goose (cli) - Harness: [Goose](/harnesses/goose.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Copilot CLI (cli) - Harness: [Copilot CLI](/harnesses/copilot-cli.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown** ### Amp (cli) - Harness: [Amp](/harnesses/amp-cli.md) - current: **Unknown** - preview: **Unknown**