patterm/idle-detection.md

Idle Detection

Solo does idle detection to show which agents are running, but this can also allow sub-agents to read state and/or trigger timers/actions based on idle state. This is important for things like permission checks. If an agent becomes idle, the orchestrator needs to know so it can approve permissions etc.

Agent idle detection Solo tracks agent state so you can tell which agents are working, idle, waiting for permission, or blocked by an error.

How it works# Solo uses a mix of signals:

First-party terminal agents use provider-specific activity strategies. Claude and OpenCode use visible output, Codex and Amp use OSC title stability, and Gemini uses OSC title status. Auto-summarization can return one of IDLE, PERMISSION, THINKING, WORKING, or ERROR, and Solo stores that classification when available. Summary timing# For summaries, Solo waits until a process has had human input and then watches output activity. A brief quiet window can trigger a summary after output stops. Continuously busy processes can also trigger summaries after a longer busy window.

The summary cadence setting is still enforced per process, so repeated activity does not produce unlimited summary attempts.

Timers# Agents can also have timers through Solo's agent-channel tools. Timer indicators show the nearest active or paused timer on the process row. Clicking the timer lets you view its message, cancel it, fire it now, or pause/resume it.

When a timer fires, Solo delivers the timer message back to the owning process.

Limits# Idle detection is a heuristic. Some agents pause between steps before continuing on their own, and a quiet terminal is not always the same thing as completed work.