Exploring better agent-to-agent communication

[zikajk]

ECA already has spawn_agent: a primary agent delegates work to a linked subagent chat and gets a result when it finishes.

Since subagents already have subagentChatId / parentChatId, maybe ECA could treat them more explicitly as active agent threads: inspectable, steerable, resumable, and able to communicate with linked agents.

Motivating scenario:

A primary agent delegates monitoring to a subagent: watch hot reload, compiler output, tests, logs, or a background job. The subagent stays active until stopped/closed. When it sees a relevant problem, it should be able to hand that information to the primary agent, or another linked agent that can debug it.

Background jobs are only one example. The broader idea is delegated work that may need communication while it is still active.

Possible directions:

• Expose active subagent chats
  Let users switch to, inspect, and interact with active subagent chats, similar to Codex agent threads.

• Steer running/resumable subagents
  Let the user or primary agent send follow-up instructions, ask for status, stop, or close a subagent.

• Agent-visible reporting
  Let a subagent report relevant information to another linked agent, not only to the UI.

• Support finite and ongoing delegation
  Some subagents return a final result; others stay active and report only when needed.

• Peer/team-style coordination
  Should linked agents communicate only through the primary, or also directly with each other?

Open design questions:

• Should a report queue for the target agent’s next turn, wake/steer it immediately, or require confirmation?
• How do we prevent late subagent reports from polluting an unrelated primary task?
• How much context should be included when handing off a problem?
• How do we avoid noisy reporting or agents repeatedly waking each other?

@ericdallo

[zikajk]

A relevant use case:
#309

[ericdallo]

I like the feature idea, and would give a lot of power to ECA, being able to spawn and manage agents swarms, I didn't have much idea of what this would look like but with your example I can see how convenient it is to have manageable and agents that can communicate with themselves.

My biggest concern is that there is a lot of micro features on this whole idea, so maybe we should start discussing what should be in a v0 but also think how to make it extensible for those other additions