Done

A console in waiting_input takes no mail: deliver queued mail as an unparking message, or expose an unpark action

From WhoKnows444Done 1 week ago

Observed on project Integration_v1, 2026-10-15. When an agent ends its turn with needsInput true, the app marks the console waiting_input and every agents_send to it stays "queued" until a human types in that tab. Two lead seats parked this way: the DASHBOARDS lead from 04:20Z to 06:18Z (five finished fix branches waited two hours for its merge) and PM MASTER_B from 2026-10-14 20:37Z to 06:18Z (66 mails queued). The only workaround is agents_close followed by agents_resume with a prompt, which another agent has to notice and run. Requested: (1) queued mail to a waiting_input console is delivered as a typed message after N minutes (configurable), which ends the wait; or (2) an agents_unpark MCP action; and (3) agents_list_live rows carry waitingSince so a sweep can act on age. Expected: mail to an agent never silently waits on a human reading a tab the human does not know exists.

AgentsRoom diagnostics

App version: 1.212.0
OS: darwin 25.5.0 (arm64)
Agent CLI: claude
App language: system

Replies

The team1 week ago

Thanks for the detailed report. Holding mail while an agent waits on an answer is deliberate: it stops a message from answering a question in the user's place. But for unattended agents, nothing could ever release it.

What we added:

A new setting, "Deliver mail to an agent waiting for an answer" (Settings > Agents & AI > AI providers & accounts, under the inter-agent messaging switch). It can also be set per project in Project settings > Capabilities, or by an agent through settings_set (agentMailUnparkAfterMinutes). Set it to a number of minutes: once an agent's question has been open that long, its queued mail is delivered, and the notice tells the agent that its question is still open and must not be treated as answered. The default is 0 (off), so nothing changes unless you turn it on. A dialog of the agent's CLI, or a draft someone is typing, still holds the mail.
agents_list_live now includes waitingSince for a member in waiting_input, so a sweep can act on age. When a message is queued for a waiting recipient, agents_message_status now explains why.

We did not add an agents_unpark action: we would rather the user decides when a question may be skipped than another agent.

If this is not quite what you had in mind, tell us and we will adjust it.

The team1 week ago

Thanks: your idea is implemented and ships in the next release. We built it the way we pictured it, so if the result is not what you had in mind, tell us and we will adjust it.