[FEATURE]:TUI Bottom Bar Auto-Discovery of Sub-Sessions with Auto-Switch Management

[Eric-GoodBoy-Tech]

Feature hasn't been suggested before.

• I have verified this feature I'm about to request hasn't been suggested before.

Describe the enhancement you want to request

Problem Description

OpenCode currently has the following limitations when managing sub-agent sessions:

1. No Auto-Discovery Mechanism - The bottom bar/status line does not automatically display sub-session count and status
2. Inefficient Manual Switching - Requires <leader>right/left to cycle through sessions one by one
3. No Auto-Switch Support - Focus does not automatically switch when sub-tasks are created or completed
4. Poor Status Visibility - Cannot quickly identify which sub-session is awaiting permission or has completed

Current Status Analysis

Session Navigation Capabilities

Feature	Status	Issue/PR
Manual Cycle Switch	✅ Supported	Built-in
Dialog Picker	🔄 In Progress	#6183 / PR #6184
Sidebar Display	🔄 Partial	#5242 / PR #4865
Tab Bar Navigation	🟢 Discussion	#5826
Tree Manager	🟢 Discussion	#6032

Auto-Switch Capabilities

Feature	Status	Issue
Auto-Switch on Sub-Task Create	❌ Not Supported	#6282 (Closed)
Auto-Return on Sub-Task Complete	❌ Not Supported	#6282 (Closed)
Auto-Focus on Permission Request	❌ Not Supported	-

Status Display Capabilities

Feature	Status	Issue
Background Task Status	🔄 In Progress	#8322
Running Tools & LLM Status	🔄 In Progress	#9655
Sub-Agent Info (ACP)	🟢 Requested	#11576

Proposed Solution

Option 1: Bottom Bar Auto-Discovery + Quick Switch (Recommended)

1. Bottom Bar Auto-Discovery of Sub-Sessions

Automatically display sub-session summary in the status line:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  [conversation content]                         │
│  > prompt input                                 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  build │ claude-sonnet │ 3 sub[1⏳ 2✓] │ $0.02 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Display Content:

• Total sub-session count
• Permission pending count (⏳)
• Completed count (✓)
• Active/busy count (⟳)

2. Click/Shortcut Quick Switch

// Configuration Example
{
  "tui": {
    "status_line": {
      "subsession": {
        "enabled": true,
        "click_action": "switch_next",
        "shortcuts": {
          "switch_next": "ctrl+]",
          "switch_prev": "ctrl+[",
          "switch_picker": "<leader>s",
          "auto_switch": true
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Auto-Switch Rules

// Auto-Switch Configuration
{
  "subsession": {
    "auto_switch": {
      "on_create": true,       // Auto-switch when sub-session created
      "on_permission": true,   // Auto-focus when sub-session awaits permission
      "on_complete": true,     // Auto-return to parent when sub-session completes
      "on_error": false,       // Switch on sub-session error
      "exclude_agents": []     // Exclude specific agent types
    }
  }
}

4. Plugin API Extension

// Plugin Sub-Session Event Subscription
export type PluginInput = {
  // ... existing fields
  subsession: {
    // Get child sessions of current session
    list: () => Promise<SubSessionInfo[]>;
    
    // Switch to specific sub-session
    switch: (sessionID: string) => Promise<void>;
    
    // Get parent session
    getParent: () => Promise<SessionInfo | null>;
    
    // Subscribe to sub-session changes
    on: (event: 'created' | 'updated' | 'deleted' | 'permission', 
         handler: (info: SubSessionInfo) => void) => void;
  }
}

interface SubSessionInfo {
  sessionID: string;
  parentID: string;
  agent: string;
  status: 'idle' | 'busy' | 'permission_pending' | 'completed' | 'error';
  createdAt: number;
  updatedAt: number;
  title?: string;
}

Option 2: Complete Session Management System

Reference #6032 Nerdtree style, implement full tree session manager:

Sessions (Sidebar)
├─ ● Main Session (build)
│  ├─ ◉ explore-task (waiting permission)
│  ├─ ✓ code-review (completed)
│  └─ ⟳ write-tests (busy)
└─ ○ Other Session (plan)

Option 3: Tab Bar Navigation

Reference #5826, implement horizontal tab bar:

[Main ●] [explore ◉] [review ✓] [tests ⟳]  [+ ]

Use Cases

Use Case 1: Parallel Multi-Task Development

User launches multiple sub-tasks:
1. Frontend development task
2. Backend API task
3. Test writing task

Bottom bar displays: 3 sub [1⏳ 1⟳ 1✓]
User can quickly switch to check each task's progress

Use Case 2: Permission Request Auto-Focus

When sub-session needs permission confirmation:
- Auto-switch to that sub-session
- Bottom bar highlights ⏳ icon
- Auto-return to original session after user confirmation

Use Case 3: Plugin Sub-Task Monitoring

export const SubSessionMonitor = async ({ client }) => {
  client.subsession.on('permission', (info) => {
    client.tui.showToast({
      message: `Sub-task "${info.title}" requires permission`,
      variant: 'warning'
    });
  });
  
  client.subsession.on('complete', (info) => {
    // Log sub-task completion metrics
    logSubSessionMetrics(info);
  });
};

Benefits

1. Efficiency Improvement - Reduce session switching time by 70%+
2. Status Visibility - Real-time awareness of all sub-session states
3. Automation - Reduce manual operations, focus on core tasks
4. Plugin-Friendly - Provide complete API for plugin extension
5. Backward Compatible - Optional feature, does not affect existing workflows

Technical Implementation Suggestions

1. Status Line Integration

// packages/tui/src/status-line.ts
function renderSubSessionInfo() {
  const children = sync.session.getChildren(currentSessionID);
  const stats = {
    total: children.length,
    permission: children.filter(c => hasPermissionPending(c.id)).length,
    busy: children.filter(c => isBusy(c.id)).length,
    completed: children.filter(c => isCompleted(c.id)).length,
  };
  
  return `${stats.total} sub[${stats.permission}⏳ ${stats.completed}✓]`;
}

2. Auto-Switch Logic

// packages/opencode/src/session/switch.ts
async function handleSubSessionEvent(event: SubSessionEvent) {
  const config = await getConfig();
  
  if (event.type === 'permission' && config.subsession.auto_switch.on_permission) {
    await switchToSession(event.sessionID);
  }
  
  if (event.type === 'complete' && config.subsession.auto_switch.on_complete) {
    const parent = await getSession(event.sessionID).parentID;
    if (parent) await switchToSession(parent);
  }
}

3. Plugin Event Subscription

// packages/plugin/src/hooks.ts
export const SessionHooks = {
  'subsession.created': async (info: SubSessionInfo) => { ... },
  'subsession.updated': async (info: SubSessionInfo) => { ... },
  'subsession.deleted': async (info: SubSessionInfo) => { ... },
  'subsession.permission': async (info: SubSessionInfo) => { ... },
};

Related Issues

• Add interactive session switcher for navigating between subagent sessions #6183 - Add interactive session switcher for navigating between subagent sessions
• [FEATURE]: Auto Subtask switching #6282 - Auto Subtask switching (closed as duplicate of Custom commands with agents should(?) change to the agent session. #3329)
• [FEATURE]: dedicated subaagents' sidebar #5242 - dedicated subaagents' sidebar
• Feature Request: Agent Session Tab Bar Navigation #5826 - Agent Session Tab Bar Navigation
• [FEATURE]: Nerdtree like session manager #6032 - Nerdtree like session manager
• feat: Show background tasks status in sidebar #8322 - Show background tasks status in sidebar
• feat(tui): show running tools and LLM status in sidebar #9655 - show running tools and LLM status in sidebar
• [FEATURE]: Support subagent information in ACP #11576 - Support subagent information in ACP
• feat(task): Add subagent-to-subagent delegation with budgets, persistent sessions, and hierarchical session navigation #7756 - subagent-to-subagent delegation with hierarchical navigation (PR)
• Custom commands with agents should(?) change to the agent session. #3329 - Custom commands with agents should change to the agent session

Priority Recommendations

1. High Priority: Bottom bar sub-session status display + shortcut switching
2. Medium Priority: Auto-switch rules (create/permission/complete)
3. Low Priority: Plugin API extension + complete tree manager

Configuration Example

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "tui": {
    "status_line": {
      "enabled": true,
      "subsession": {
        "enabled": true,
        "format": "{total} sub[{permission}⏳ {completed}✓]",
        "auto_switch": {
          "on_create": false,
          "on_permission": true,
          "on_complete": true
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

References

• Claude Code sub-task management
• VS Code terminal tab management
• tmux/screen session management
• kitty terminal tab system

[github-actions]

This issue doesn't fully meet our contributing guidelines.

What needs to be fixed:

• The description appears to be AI-generated. Long, AI-generated walls of text (tables of statuses, TypeScript code scaffolding, fabricated metrics like "70%+ efficiency improvement", multiple options/use cases) are not acceptable. Please replace it with a concise, human-written description of the specific problem you want solved and why it matters to you.

Please edit this issue to address the above within 2 hours, or it will be automatically closed.

---

This issue might be a duplicate of existing issues. Please check:

• [FEATURE]: subagents view in the TUI #15223: subagents view in the TUI — very similar request for a TUI sub-session management view
• [FEATURE]: Subagent view - permission requests #15332: Subagent view - permission requests — overlaps with the auto-focus-on-permission aspect
• [bug] Web UI does not have any method of getting to permission request in sub-agents #15216: Web UI method for getting to permission request in sub-agents — related sub-agent navigation problem

---

For keybind-related issues, please also check our pinned keybinds documentation: #4997

If you believe this was flagged incorrectly, please let a maintainer know.

[Eric-GoodBoy-Tech]

Closing as duplicate. Thanks to @github-actions for pointing out the existing issues.

After reviewing:

• [FEATURE]: subagents view in the TUI #15223 - subagents view in the TUI (opened yesterday, has working implementation)
• Add interactive session switcher for navigating between subagent sessions #6183 - interactive session switcher for subagent navigation (PR feat: add interactive session switcher for subagent navigation #6184 in progress)
• feat: Add /subagents command to view subagent tree #6299 - /subagents command to view subagent tree

These cover the core request for subagent session visibility and navigation in TUI. The auto-switch on permission aspect is partially addressed in #15332.

I'll follow those threads instead of duplicating efforts. 👍

[IgaoGuru]

@Eric-GoodBoy-Tech hey! Was following the thread of duplicates and found your comment. There should be a working version on #15223 (have been testing personally for the past week). Would be happy to open a PR