Idea: Multi-agent coordination in copilot (Agent Tree View)

[khang859]

Status: Idea / Not yet planned

Problem

When a lead agent spawns sub-agents (e.g., via worktrees), the copilot treats each session as independent. This creates three pain points:

1. Visibility — can't tell what sub-agents are doing without clicking into each one
2. Permission bottlenecks — sub-agents get blocked on permissions and you don't notice, stalling the whole team
3. Context loss — lose track of which agent is doing what, especially with 4+ agents

Idea: Agent Tree View

Replace the flat session list with a tree-based view when parent/child relationships are detected:

• Lead agent appears as the root node, sub-agents nested underneath
• Each node shows: status badge, one-line task summary (extracted from prompt), elapsed time
• Permissions from any agent in the tree bubble up to the root level with a count badge
• Mascot animation reflects the worst status across the entire tree (e.g., amber pulse if any agent needs permission)

Design Direction

• Plan-aware but lightweight — show agent relationships with a one-line summary of what each is working on, not a full plan view
• Detect parent/child via PID tree walking or hook event data
• Falls back to flat list when no relationships detected

Alternatives Considered

• Unified Permission Queue — dedicated tab aggregating all permissions. Solves bottleneck but not visibility/context.
• Mission Control Dashboard — full top-level view with agent group cards. Best UX but largest scope.

Next Steps

None yet — this is just an idea for future consideration.