# 2026-03-13

## Subagent reliability investigation
- Fresh implementation subagent launch for subagent/ACP reliability failed immediately before doing any task work.
- Failure mode: delegated run was spawned with model `glm-5`, which resolved to provider model `zai/glm-5`.
- Current installed agent auth profile keys inspected in agent stores include `openai-codex:default`, `litellm:default`, and `github-copilot:github`.
- Will clarified on 2026-03-13 that Z.AI auth does exist in the environment, but the account is not entitled for `glm-5`.
- Verified by inspecting agent auth profile keys under:
  - `/home/openclaw/.openclaw/agents/*/agent/auth-profiles.json`
- Relevant OpenClaw docs confirm:
  - subagent spawns inherit caller model when `sessions_spawn.model` is omitted
  - provider/model auth errors like `No API key found for provider "zai"` occur when a provider model is selected without matching auth
  - multi-agent auth is per-agent via `~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/agent/auth-profiles.json`
- Conclusion: the immediate failure was caused by an incorrect explicit model selection in the spawn request, not by missing auth propagation between agents.
- Corrective action: retry fresh delegation with `litellm/glm-5` (the intended medium-tier routed model for delegated implementation work in this setup).
- Will explicitly requested on 2026-03-13 to use `gpt-5.4` for subagents for now while debugging delegation reliability.
- New evidence from the corrected run: `~/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/1615a980-cf92-4d5e-845a-a2abe77c0418.jsonl` shows repeated assistant `stopReason:"error"` entries with `429 ... GLM-5 not included in current subscription plan`, but `~/.openclaw/subagents/runs.json` recorded run `776a8b51-6fdc-448e-83bc-55418814a05b` as `outcome.status: "ok"` and `frozenResultText: null`.
- That separates ACP/runtime choice problems from a generic subagent completion/reporting bug: a terminal assistant error can still be persisted/announced as success with no useful result.
- Implemented upstream fix on branch `external/openclaw-upstream@fix/subagent-wait-error-outcome`:
  - added assistant terminal-outcome helper so empty-content assistant errors still yield usable terminal text
  - subagent registry now downgrades `agent.wait => ok` to `error` when the child session's terminal assistant message is actually an error
  - subagent announce flow now reports terminal assistant errors as failed outcomes instead of successful `(no output)` completions
- Targeted validation passed:
  - `pnpm -C /home/openclaw/.openclaw/workspace/external/openclaw-upstream test -- --run src/agents/tools/sessions-helpers.terminal-text.test.ts src/agents/subagent-registry.persistence.test.ts src/gateway/server-methods/server-methods.test.ts`
  - result: `50 tests` passed across `3` files
- Follow-up still needed: rerun a real delegated subagent using a known-working model entitlement (`gpt-5.4` preferred for now) to verify successful runs leave a useful frozen result and failed runs now persist as `error`.
- Will also explicitly requested that zap keep a light eye on active subagents and check whether they look stuck instead of assuming they are fine until completion.