Claude Code changed its subagent on-disk format (~2026-06-14): TUI Task
subagents now write `agent-{id}.meta.json` ({agentType,description,toolUseId})
into the session's `subagents/` dir and no longer reliably write a per-agent
`agent-{id}.jsonl` transcript there. The watcher discovered agents ONLY by
`.jsonl`, so it tracked zero — subagent windows and the monitor's "N TRACKED"
showed nothing.
- Add `registerAgentMeta()`: discover from the meta sidecar (description from
meta.description/agentType), prefer a sibling `.jsonl` transcript when present
(richer), never tail a meta file.
- Initial scan + directory watcher now handle `.meta.json` alongside `.jsonl`.
- Tests: 2 new cases (meta-only discovery; prefer-.jsonl-when-present).
Verified e2e against a real ~/.claude/projects fixture.
Known follow-ups (not in scope): meta-only agents have no per-agent transcript
to tail (no live tool-call feed, status stays 'active'); workflow agents under
`subagents/workflows/{wf}/agent-*.jsonl` are still missed by the flat scan.
Also adds the README screenshot tooling used to surface this:
- capture-real-overview.mjs: DSF=2 + ?nowebgl crisp path (DOM renderer avoids
the WebGL glyph-doubling at deviceScaleFactor>1).
- capture-readme-real.mjs: real-instance desktop-scene capture (dashboard/
monitor/subagent) for an isolated beta seeded from prod settings.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Root causes:
- Mock readline (EventEmitter) lacked .close() method, causing TypeError
that blocked extractDescriptionFromFile's Promise from ever resolving
- Mock stream lacked .destroy() method (same issue after .close() fix)
- Entry-processing tests shared one readline mock between description
extraction and tailing — events emitted before tailFile started were lost
- Liveness checker marked agents as 'completed' instead of 'idle' because
fixed stat timestamps became stale after fake timer advancement
Fixes:
- Add createMockRl() helper with .close() method
- Use { destroy: vi.fn() } for stream mocks
- Use mockReturnValueOnce() for two-readline pattern in 7 entry tests
- Use mockImplementation() for dynamic stat timestamps
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Add 100ms debounce for new file detection to allow content to be written
- Add subagent:updated event for retroactive description updates
- Extract description in processEntry when first user message is processed
- Add extractDescriptionFromFile helper with retry in file change handler
- Update SubagentTranscriptEntry.content type to support string | array
- Add test coverage for subagent:updated event
Fixes 43% failure rate where subagents displayed raw IDs instead of descriptions
due to race condition when files were discovered before first line was written.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Codeman maintainer