Harness spec 3.4.0: an agent chat's subagents are the device's; the tree's cases

acp.md *Subagents in an agent chat*: capability agents carries the chat's {min, max} (and
subagents: false) down on every turn and _lembas/configure, said (the person's earlier words)
on session/new; the tree, progress, approvals, findings and transcripts come up; what the server
keeps. subagents.md §14. team.json: ten 3.4.0 cases (only the main agent, sub-managers and parent,
slots, modes and request options, whoami, finish, findings, running out of context and replacing,
requests and decisions, assign); a member's own task is refused only_main. subagents.md: the
subagents under a sub-manager that ended by itself move under its parent until it is replaced.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

harness/README.md

@@ -99,7 +99,10 @@ round (`progress.md`, `subagents.md` §5–§13).
   `team_add` gains `parent`, `mode`, `request`; `team_send` takes `parent`; `team_stop` is the main
   agent's. `blocks/team_submanager.md`; `team_lead.md` and `team_member.md` reworded. Over the link,
   capability `tree`: the `team` event, `_lembas/team`, `/transcript` (read-only), `/findings`,
-  `/stop`, `subagent` on an approval. Areas `team` (cases changed where a member used to add or
+  `/stop`, `subagent` on an approval. **An agent chat's subagents are the device's** (`subagents.md`
+  §14, `acp.md` *Subagents in an agent chat*): capability `agents` carries the chat's `{ min, max }`
+  down on every turn (and `said`, the person's earlier words, on `session/new`); the tree, progress,
+  approvals, findings and transcripts come up. Areas `team` (cases changed where a member used to add or
   stop, and new ones) and `delegation`.
 
 ## 3.3.0

harness/acp.md

@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ change to the protocol is a change here first, then in both projects.
 | `show` | spec 3.0.0: `_lembas/show`; the `show` tool is offered in a session the client opened when the client said `show: true` in `clientCapabilities._meta.lembas` |
 | `jobs` | background work (spec 2.0.0): the `job` and `job_note` events; `_lembas/jobs`, `_lembas/job/output`, `_lembas/job/stop`, `_lembas/job/send`, `_lembas/job/transcript`; `jobs` in `_lembas/session/status`; `job` on `session/request_permission`; `machine` on a `prompt` event |
 | `progress` | spec 3.4.0 (`progress.md`): the `phase` event; `progress` in `_lembas/session/status` |
+| `agents` | spec 3.4.0: the session's Subagents setting `{ min, max }` is read from `_meta.lembas.agents` on `session/new`, `session/prompt` and `_lembas/configure` (*Subagents in an agent chat*, below) |
 | `tree` | spec 3.4.0 (`subagents.md` §5–§13): the `team` event; `_lembas/team`, `_lembas/team/transcript`, `_lembas/team/findings`, `_lembas/team/stop`; `subagent` on `session/request_permission` |
 
 ## Standard ACP, as used here
@@ -254,6 +255,57 @@ Answer: ACP's `{ outcome: { outcome: "selected", optionId } | { outcome: "cancel
 optional `_meta.lembas.command` (the corrected command line, `once` only) or
 `_meta.lembas.feedback` (why it was denied). No answer within `remote.approval_timeout` is a denial.
 
+## Subagents in an agent chat (spec 3.4.0)
+
+**An agent chat's main agent is the CLI on the device.** Its subagents are the device's: it starts
+them locally, on the models of the server it is logged in to, under every rule of `subagents.md` —
+the model rules (§2–§3), Min/Max, slots, permissions only ever narrowed, request options, and a
+call nobody in the tree can allow going to the person. The server runs no subagent of its own for
+an agent chat and offers its own subagent tool to no agent chat; what it does is carry the setting
+down and the tree up. A device without the capabilities `agents` and `tree` gets neither and runs no
+subagents for the chat (the chat says so beside the setting).
+
+**What goes down, with every turn.**
+
+- `agents: { min, max }` in `_meta.lembas` of `session/new`, of **every** `session/prompt`, and of
+  `_lembas/configure` when the person changes it between turns — the chat's setting as the server
+  keeps it (`team.md` §2: 1 ≤ min ≤ max ≤ the instance's cap). The device takes the value as the
+  session's setting for that turn: a change reaches the main agent as `team.md` §10's note, and
+  nothing else reads the device's own configuration for the chat. Absent (an older server): `{ min:
+  1, max: 1 }` — no subagents. A value the device's own global cap is under is read as `team.md` §2
+  says (lowered, never refused).
+- `subagents: false` in the same `_meta.lembas` when the instance has subagents switched off: the
+  device offers none whatever `agents` says.
+- **What the person named** (`subagents.md` §2): the person's words reach the device as the turns'
+  prompt texts, so the device judges a named model from them as in its own sessions — every
+  `session/prompt` without `machine`; never a `machine` turn, a `_lembas/steer` from the harness, or
+  a tool's output. A chat continued on a device that has not seen its earlier turns gets them in
+  `_meta.lembas.said: string[]`, the person's earlier messages of the chat, oldest first (on
+  `session/new` only); the device counts them as typed in the session.
+- The models: the device's subagents may run on any model of the person's (`/v1/models` as the
+  device's token sees it), as in its own sessions.
+
+**What comes up.**
+
+- The tree, as it changes: the `team` event (`{ tree }`, `subagents.md` §12's data, at most four a
+  second), and on request `_lembas/team` (the tree and the whole room). Every agent's `progress`
+  is in it; the main agent's own also as the `phase` event (capability `progress`).
+- Approvals: a subagent's call that only the person can allow is an ordinary
+  `session/request_permission` with `_meta.lembas.subagent: { id, name, position }`; the server
+  shows it as its usual approval card naming the subagent, in every client. Requests the main agent
+  decides (`team_request` / `team_decide`) never reach the server as approvals: they are room
+  messages.
+- Findings and transcripts on request: `_lembas/team/findings`, `_lembas/team/transcript` (live and
+  ended subagents, read-only — the link has no method that writes into a subagent's session).
+- The person stopping a subagent: `_lembas/team/stop`.
+
+**What the server keeps.** The latest tree with the chat (so a client opening the chat draws it at
+once, and after the device has gone), and the room as `_lembas/team` last answered. Findings and
+transcripts stay on the device; a client asking for one while the device is not linked is told it
+is on the device, and gets it once the device links again. Over `/api/v2` the chat's stream carries
+the tree as it changes and the endpoints to read a subagent's transcript and findings, the same for
+a chat's own subagents and for an agent chat's — so Web, Desktop and Android draw both alike.
+
 ## `_lembas/*` methods
 
 Direction is who sends it. "→ result" marks a request; the others are notifications.
@@ -307,7 +359,7 @@ Only on the link (an error on `serve --stdio`).
 
 ### `_lembas/configure` — client → agent → result
 
-Params `{ sessionId, model?: <instance's name>, effort?: <level> }` between prompts (a level as in `session/new`). Result
+Params `{ sessionId, model?: <instance's name>, effort?: <level>, agents?: { min, max } }` between prompts (a level as in `session/new`; `agents` with capability `agents`, spec 3.4.0). Result
 `{ model: <ref>, effort }`. Emits a `model` event when something changed.
 
 ### `_lembas/steer` — client → agent → result

harness/subagents.md

@@ -266,6 +266,9 @@ a message wakes it — 3.2.0), **`paused`** (its context is full; its last turn
 **An ended subagent** — `done`, `out_of_context`, `stopped` — leaves the size and its slot frees;
 its name may be used again; it keeps its id, and the tree keeps it (§12) with its findings and
 transcript for the rest of the session. Messages to it by name are refused as `unknown`.
+The subagents under a sub-manager that ended by itself (`done`, `out_of_context`) move under its
+parent until the main agent replaces it, and then back under the replacement; a stopped one's
+subtree is stopped with it (§10).
 
 **When its context fills.** A subagent does not compact. When its context reaches
 `team.context.pause_at` of its model's window (default 0.85, the fraction compaction would start
@@ -348,3 +351,12 @@ the link (`acp.md`, capability `tree`):
 - A subagent: `blocks/team_member.md` (3.4.0: its id and position, `team_whoami`, `team_findings`,
   `team_finish`, that its context is limited and it will be told when it fills); a sub-manager,
   `blocks/team_submanager.md` in place of the whole lead block it got in 3.2.0.
+
+## 14. In an agent chat
+
+The main agent of an agent chat is the CLI on the linked device: it starts and runs the
+subagents there, under every rule above. The server carries the chat's Subagents setting down with
+every turn and the tree, approvals, findings and transcripts up, and offers no subagents of its own
+to an agent chat. The protocol: `acp.md`, *Subagents in an agent chat* (capabilities `agents` and
+`tree`).
+