fix(review,autoplan): require explicit run_in_background: false on specialist agents

Claude Code v2.1.198 made subagents run in the background by default, which
inverted the old "do not use the flag" guidance: review-army specialists and
autoplan dual voices silently launched in the background and the merge step
could proceed before they completed — regressing the #497 fix. The generated
guidance now instructs an explicit run_in_background: false, and a static
tripwire fails the free suite if the inert inverted phrasing ever returns to
any generated SKILL.md.

Fixes #2440.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Garry Tan
2026-08-14 20:20:48 -07:00
co-authored by Claude Fable 5
parent 5084f85e00
commit e684948efe
7 changed files with 78 additions and 10 deletions
+1 -1
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@@ -2177,7 +2177,7 @@ CHECKLIST:
**Subagent configuration:**
- Use `subagent_type: "general-purpose"`
- Do NOT use `run_in_background` — all specialists must complete before merge
- Pass `run_in_background: false` on every specialist Agent call — subagents run in the BACKGROUND by default since Claude Code v2.1.198, and all specialists must complete before merge. (Merely omitting the flag no longer produces a foreground run; it must be explicitly false.)
- If any specialist subagent fails or times out, log the failure and continue with results from successful specialists. Specialists are additive — partial results are better than no results.
---
+66
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@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
import { describe, test, expect } from 'bun:test';
import * as fs from 'fs';
import * as path from 'path';
// Regression guard for #2440 (which itself regressed the #497 fix).
//
// Claude Code v2.1.198 made subagents run in the BACKGROUND by default.
// Guidance written before that ("do NOT use run_in_background") stopped
// producing a foreground run — the review army and autoplan dual-voice
// steps silently launched specialists in the background and merged before
// they completed. The only guidance that works post-2.1.198 is an explicit
// `run_in_background: false` on the Agent call.
//
// This tripwire pins the corrected phrasing in the generated skill output
// and fails if the inverted form ever comes back through a template or
// resolver edit.
const ROOT = path.resolve(import.meta.dir, '..');
const GENERATED_WITH_GUIDANCE = ['review/SKILL.md', 'autoplan/SKILL.md'];
// The inverted, post-2.1.198-inert phrasings. Checked across every generated
// SKILL.md so the regression can't migrate to another skill unnoticed.
const INVERTED = /do not use\s+`?run_in_background`?/i;
function allGeneratedSkillFiles(): string[] {
const out: string[] = [];
for (const entry of fs.readdirSync(ROOT, { withFileTypes: true })) {
if (!entry.isDirectory() || entry.name.startsWith('.') || entry.name === 'node_modules') continue;
const p = path.join(ROOT, entry.name, 'SKILL.md');
if (fs.existsSync(p)) out.push(p);
// Generated on-demand section files (e.g. ship/sections/review-army.md)
// carry the same resolver output as SKILL.md bodies — scan them too.
const sections = path.join(ROOT, entry.name, 'sections');
if (fs.existsSync(sections)) {
for (const f of fs.readdirSync(sections)) {
if (f.endsWith('.md')) out.push(path.join(sections, f));
}
}
}
const rootSkill = path.join(ROOT, 'SKILL.md');
if (fs.existsSync(rootSkill)) out.push(rootSkill);
return out;
}
describe('run_in_background guidance (#2440)', () => {
test('foreground-required skills instruct run_in_background: false explicitly', () => {
for (const rel of GENERATED_WITH_GUIDANCE) {
const content = fs.readFileSync(path.join(ROOT, rel), 'utf-8');
expect(content).toContain('run_in_background: false');
}
});
test('the inverted "do NOT use run_in_background" phrasing never comes back', () => {
for (const file of allGeneratedSkillFiles()) {
const content = fs.readFileSync(file, 'utf-8');
if (INVERTED.test(content)) {
throw new Error(
`${path.relative(ROOT, file)} contains the inverted run_in_background guidance — ` +
'since Claude Code v2.1.198 subagents default to background, so "do not use" is inert; ' +
'instruct `run_in_background: false` instead (see #2440).',
);
}
}
});
});