@comchatx/cx-subagents0.1.1

When a task will take long, such as a research across several data sources or a look through many listings, cx hands it to a helper that runs in the background, tells you it has, and keeps answering you. The helper's result comes back into the conversation by itself.

When the result comes back

A helper runs for at most 30 minutes. When it is done, cx tells you what it found in the conversation; if it is still at work after 30 minutes, cx says it ran out. On cx's computer, at most two helpers run in the background at a time in one conversation: that is ComChatX's setting on the computer, not this package's, and a computer without that setting sets no cap.

What it costs

A helper uses the same model as cx and is paid from the same balance. cx's computer stays on while a helper runs, and that time is billed.

When cx's computer stops

If cx's computer stops before a result is handed back, that result is lost and the work has to run again.

How it is built

• pi-subagents, unchanged. The helper is pi-subagents and its subagent tool. This package names it in its comchatx field's builds, so the Plugins page installs it with this one; it does not carry it. Its tests run against pi-subagents 0.83.0 on pi 1.3.0.

• One skill, cx-subagents. It says when cx hands a task to the background (a long research across several sources; a look through many listings), that cx then hands the conversation back and says so, and that the result returns by itself. pi-subagents' own tool asks for an instruction before it delegates; in a ComChatX box this skill is that instruction. Its description says what it needs: pi installs nothing for a package.

• pi-subagents' config, carried by the box. pi-subagents reads extensions/subagent/config.json in pi's agent directory once, when it loads, and the Plugins page installs it before this package, so a box's image carries the file instead of this package writing it:

  {
    "asyncByDefault": true,
    "toolActivation": "eager",
    "maxActiveAsyncRunsPerSession": 2
  }
  

  A run goes to the background unless a call says otherwise; the subagent tool is offered from a session's first request; and two background runs at a time in one session, where pi-subagents' own default has no cap. The 30-minute limit is pi-subagents' own default.

• What the box does for it. A background run is a detached Node process of the model's user, so the box counts it as work and stays awake while it runs. Its state lives under /tmp, which a stop clears. The box drops the widget pi-subagents sets once a second while a run is in the background, since the page draws none. The notice that wakes cx when a run ends is not drawn; cx's own answer after it is.

Tests

• test/package.test.ts: the pinned pi lists cx-subagents beside pi-subagents' own skill, with what it needs in its description; the comchatx field names the same skills pi lists from this package, with their words, for the Plugins page; the package ships the skill alone and names pi-subagents for the page.
• test/background.test.ts, on the pinned pi in RPC mode with a scripted model on loopback, as a box starts pi:
  • the subagent call comes back at once with the run detached;
  • a second message is answered while the helper is still at work;
  • the helper's result arrives as pi-subagents' notice, not displayed, and starts the turn in which cx relays it;
  • with the box's config the session holds 0/2 background runs, and without it 0/unlimited.

Release

A maintainer publishes the first version by hand, npm publish --access public from a checkout of the merged tag. Each later version is published by .github/workflows/release.yml on a v<version> tag, once this repository is the package's trusted publisher on npm.