Status: implemented
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list_agents projected a continuable child's process residency as running | idle | complete. complete reads as a terminal unit of work with a result somewhere, but the underlying fact says only that no Activation is resident: the conversation is intact, send_message can continue it, and nothing about the child's outcome is being claimed. A model that reads complete reasonably looks for a result to collect or sends replacement work to a conversation it believes has ended.
The word is especially misleading alongside manager-owned settlement delivery. Completion reaches the parent as a notice; listing exists to recall durable conversations, not to poll for that notice.
The model-facing projection reports running | idle | ready:
runningmeans the resident Agent has an active driver.idlemeans the Agent is resident between turns and may be waiting on agents it started.readymeans only the durable conversation remains.send_messagestarts the next turn on the same conversation; the status is resumable rather than terminal and does not mean a result is waiting to be collected.
The tool description states those distinctions and directs the model away from polling: it says the parent is told when a child finishes and that listing is for recalling which children it started. send_message remains the authoritative delivery check because either snapshot may race another process or a later message.
The service layer is unchanged. SubagentListEntry.activity retains 'running' | 'inactive', which accurately describes corpus residency for consumers such as a UI. The model-facing adapter maps inactive to ready because that word communicates the action available to the model without inventing an outcome.
Keep complete and qualify it in the description. A description saying that complete does not mean complete fights the rendered status on every read. The line the model scans must carry the correct distinction itself.
Use active | dormant. This removes the useful distinction between a resident Agent that is between turns and a storage-only conversation, and makes the storage-only state sound unavailable. ready states the useful fact: the same conversation accepts another turn.
Drop the status entirely. Residency remains useful when a parent decides whether to send more work. Removing it trades one misleading status for no signal.
Rename the service activity values. running | inactive is correct at the service layer and has non-model consumers. Renaming it would churn a general contract to fix one adapter's presentation; the durable catalog note continues to own that service vocabulary.
- The rendered line uses
<id> [running] — <label>,<id> [idle] — <label>, or<id> [ready] — <label>. - The output schema's
statusenum changes with the rendered contract. The generated tool catalog picks up the new description; it renders each tool'sparametersonly and never carried the output schema. - Unit coverage pins all three mappings and the description clauses that direct the model to the settlement notice instead of polling this tool.
- The assembled ACP
subagent-list-agentsscenario rendersreadyfor a settled, resumable child.