From 31ecbbd5bf765b41d49806a0cb136192fab3bb33 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Vincent Koc <vincentkoc@ieee.org>
Date: Wed, 27 May 2026 09:31:35 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] fix(agents): ignore failed subagent placeholders

---
 src/agents/subagent-announce-delivery.test.ts | 35 +++++++++++++++++++
 src/agents/subagent-announce-delivery.ts      | 24 ++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 58 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/agents/subagent-announce-delivery.test.ts b/src/agents/subagent-announce-delivery.test.ts
index 01ff08b7d495..cb36fa9fa906 100644
--- a/src/agents/subagent-announce-delivery.test.ts
+++ b/src/agents/subagent-announce-delivery.test.ts
@@ -1003,6 +1003,41 @@ describe("deliverSubagentAnnouncement completion delivery", () => {
     );
   });
 
+  it("does not directly deliver failed subagent placeholder output", async () => {
+    const callGateway = createGatewayMock({
+      result: {
+        payloads: [],
+      },
+    });
+    const sendMessage = createSendMessageMock();
+
+    const result = await deliverDiscordDirectMessageCompletion({
+      callGateway,
+      sendMessage,
+      internalEvents: [
+        {
+          type: "task_completion",
+          source: "subagent",
+          childSessionKey: "agent:worker:subagent:child",
+          childSessionId: "child-session-id",
+          announceType: "subagent task",
+          taskLabel: "direct completion smoke",
+          status: "error",
+          statusLabel: "failed: all models failed",
+          result: "(no output)",
+          replyInstruction: "Summarize the result.",
+        },
+      ],
+    });
+
+    expectRecordFields(result, {
+      delivered: false,
+      path: "direct",
+      error: "completion agent did not produce a visible reply",
+    });
+    expect(sendMessage).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
   it("directly delivers unprefixed direct targets recognized by the channel grammar", async () => {
     registerDirectTargetTestChannel("qa-channel");
     const callGateway = createGatewayMock({
diff --git a/src/agents/subagent-announce-delivery.ts b/src/agents/subagent-announce-delivery.ts
index 7d0d8ae0cb6b..32198d28284d 100644
--- a/src/agents/subagent-announce-delivery.ts
+++ b/src/agents/subagent-announce-delivery.ts
@@ -767,14 +767,29 @@ function resolveTextCompletionDirectFallback(events: readonly AgentInternalEvent
     if (event?.type !== "task_completion" || event.source !== "subagent") {
       continue;
     }
+    if (event.status !== "ok") {
+      continue;
+    }
     const result = typeof event.result === "string" ? event.result.trim() : "";
-    if (result) {
+    if (result && result !== "(no output)") {
       return result;
     }
   }
   return undefined;
 }
 
+function hasFailedSubagentNoOutputCompletion(events: readonly AgentInternalEvent[] | undefined) {
+  return (
+    events?.some(
+      (event) =>
+        event.type === "task_completion" &&
+        event.source === "subagent" &&
+        event.status !== "ok" &&
+        event.result.trim() === "(no output)",
+    ) === true
+  );
+}
+
 async function deliverTextCompletionDirect(params: {
   cfg: OpenClawConfig;
   requesterSessionKey: string;
@@ -1190,6 +1205,13 @@ async function sendSubagentAnnounceDirectly(params: {
       if (textDelivery) {
         return textDelivery;
       }
+      if (hasFailedSubagentNoOutputCompletion(params.internalEvents)) {
+        return {
+          delivered: false,
+          path: "direct",
+          error: "completion agent did not produce a visible reply",
+        };
+      }
     }
     if (
       params.expectsCompletionMessage &&