diff --git a/src/agents/subagent-registry-cleanup.test.ts b/src/agents/subagent-registry-cleanup.test.ts
index ed97add7162..474421bc08e 100644
--- a/src/agents/subagent-registry-cleanup.test.ts
+++ b/src/agents/subagent-registry-cleanup.test.ts
@@ -78,4 +78,19 @@ describe("resolveDeferredCleanupDecision", () => {
 
     expect(decision).toEqual({ kind: "retry", retryCount: 2, resumeDelayMs: 2_000 });
   });
+
+  it("uses retry backoff for non-completion flows so cleanup can settle after announce failures", () => {
+    const decision = resolveDeferredCleanupDecision({
+      entry: makeEntry({ expectsCompletionMessage: false, announceRetryCount: 1 }),
+      now,
+      activeDescendantRuns: 0,
+      announceExpiryMs: 5 * 60_000,
+      announceCompletionHardExpiryMs: 30 * 60_000,
+      maxAnnounceRetryCount: 3,
+      deferDescendantDelayMs: 1_000,
+      resolveAnnounceRetryDelayMs: (retryCount) => retryCount * 1_000,
+    });
+
+    expect(decision).toEqual({ kind: "retry", retryCount: 2, resumeDelayMs: 2_000 });
+  });
 });
diff --git a/src/agents/subagent-registry-cleanup.ts b/src/agents/subagent-registry-cleanup.ts
index 716e6e2a72a..9bcc6c37b3b 100644
--- a/src/agents/subagent-registry-cleanup.ts
+++ b/src/agents/subagent-registry-cleanup.ts
@@ -66,9 +66,6 @@ export function resolveDeferredCleanupDecision(params: {
   return {
     kind: "retry",
     retryCount,
-    resumeDelayMs:
-      params.entry.expectsCompletionMessage === true
-        ? params.resolveAnnounceRetryDelayMs(retryCount)
-        : undefined,
+    resumeDelayMs: params.resolveAnnounceRetryDelayMs(retryCount),
   };
 }
diff --git a/src/agents/tools/sessions-spawn-tool.ts b/src/agents/tools/sessions-spawn-tool.ts
index 709cd3b5977..f9b77692dc6 100644
--- a/src/agents/tools/sessions-spawn-tool.ts
+++ b/src/agents/tools/sessions-spawn-tool.ts
@@ -173,6 +173,7 @@ export function createSessionsSpawnTool(
       const mode = params.mode === "run" || params.mode === "session" ? params.mode : undefined;
       const cleanup =
         params.cleanup === "keep" || params.cleanup === "delete" ? params.cleanup : "keep";
+      const expectsCompletionMessage = params.expectsCompletionMessage !== false;
       const sandbox = params.sandbox === "require" ? "require" : "inherit";
       const streamTo = params.streamTo === "parent" ? "parent" : undefined;
       const lightContext = params.lightContext === true;
@@ -289,7 +290,7 @@ export function createSessionsSpawnTool(
               cleanup: trackedCleanup,
               label: label || undefined,
               runTimeoutSeconds,
-              expectsCompletionMessage: true,
+              expectsCompletionMessage,
               spawnMode: trackedSpawnMode,
             });
           } catch (err) {
@@ -320,7 +321,7 @@ export function createSessionsSpawnTool(
           cleanup,
           sandbox,
           lightContext,
-          expectsCompletionMessage: true,
+          expectsCompletionMessage,
           attachments,
           attachMountPath:
             params.attachAs && typeof params.attachAs === "object"
diff --git a/src/scripts/test-projects.test.ts b/src/scripts/test-projects.test.ts
index ecfbfb29abe..a5b53c0b082 100644
--- a/src/scripts/test-projects.test.ts
+++ b/src/scripts/test-projects.test.ts
@@ -64,7 +64,15 @@ const {
     targetArgs: string[];
     watchMode: boolean;
   };
-  resolveParallelFullSuiteConcurrency: (specCount: number, env?: NodeJS.ProcessEnv) => number;
+  resolveParallelFullSuiteConcurrency: (
+    specCount: number,
+    env?: NodeJS.ProcessEnv,
+    hostInfo?: {
+      cpuCount?: number;
+      loadAverage1m?: number;
+      totalMemoryBytes?: number;
+    },
+  ) => number;
 };
 
 const VITEST_NODE_PREFIX = [
@@ -486,9 +494,17 @@ describe("test-projects args", () => {
 
   it("uses a bounded local default for full-suite project parallelism", () => {
     expect(
-      resolveParallelFullSuiteConcurrency(58, {
-        OPENCLAW_TEST_PROJECTS_LEAF_SHARDS: "1",
-      }),
+      resolveParallelFullSuiteConcurrency(
+        58,
+        {
+          OPENCLAW_TEST_PROJECTS_LEAF_SHARDS: "1",
+        },
+        {
+          cpuCount: 8,
+          loadAverage1m: 0,
+          totalMemoryBytes: 16 * 1024 ** 3,
+        },
+      ),
     ).toBe(4);
   });