# Show HN: I let an subagent workflow refactor my codebase for three days > Source: > Published: 2026-08-22 02:33:27+00:00 **Turn ad-hoc subagents into durable, accountable AI teams.** A local runtime for persistent, supervised parent–subagent delegation with Codex and Claude. [Get started](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/docs/start/getting-started.md) · [Documentation](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/docs/README.md) · [Starter teams](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/examples/workflows/README.md) Ad-hoc delegation is easy to begin and surprisingly hard to operate. A parent spawns children, polls them, reconstructs ownership from chat, and hopes that a closed terminal or interrupted provider session did not erase the only useful account of what happened. Oh My Subagents moves that coordination into durable runtime state: | Ad-hoc subagents | Oh My Subagents | |---|---| | Recreate roles and prompts for every job | Publish a reusable tree of named responsibilities | | Keep asking whether every child is done | Let the runtime persist the wait, collect the complete Wave, and continue the parent | | Reconstruct ownership from a transcript | Follow controller-owned team, Activity, and wait state | | Treat provider completion as success | Accept only the Task lead's completed or blocked Result | | Recover by piecing together terminal sessions | Recover from committed controller records without discarding accepted history | | Relay giant responses through chat | Hand off concise Checkpoints and explicit references to ordinary workspace files | When a Manager delegates a Wave, **Oh My Subagents (OMS)** commits the child Assignments, persists the parent wait, supervises every return, and continues the parent with the complete Checkpoints—even after an interruption. The parent does not remain in a polling loop. A delegated Wave and its child Assignments commit together with the parent wait. Children return terminal Checkpoints independently; the controller collects the complete Wave and continues the parent with every return. Managers can delegate recursively. Every Manager follows the same local rule with its direct children: delegate, wait, inspect the complete returns, and integrate. Deeper teams need no hidden global polling loop. Here is one concrete run: evidence determines the next Wave, review findings become a new repair Assignment, and verification remains independent. A **Workflow definition** answers **who is responsible**. It does not prescribe when a Member runs or force the work into a DAG. At runtime, Managers choose the pattern that fits the actual Task and current evidence: - run dependent work sequentially; - fan independent work out in parallel; - iterate through implement, review, and repair; - divide a bounded batch among reusable owners; - combine those patterns in one Task; or - replan one responsibility subtree when the current team no longer fits. The same published team can therefore respond differently to two different missions. A replan changes future responsibility without rewriting earlier revisions, completed work, or accepted history. OMS does more than display several agents at once: **One stable starting contract.** Every Task pins the exact published Workflow revision it started with.**One owner per Assignment.** Child work is immutable, task-specific, and tied to the Member responsible for returning it.**Durable fan-out and fan-in.** Waves, waits, retries, replans, Checkpoints, and continuations live in controller-owned state—not only in a provider transcript.**One accountable Result.** Child completion is evidence for a parent. Only the Task lead's accepted completed or blocked Checkpoint becomes the Result shown to you.**Honest recovery.** Browser closure, provider interruption, and controller restart do not silently fabricate completion or discard accepted history.**Ordinary files stay ordinary.** Notes, reports, code, and artifacts remain in your workspace. OMS records small navigation references instead of pretending to own or snapshot every byte. Capabilities deny by default and never inherit from a parent. Provider, model, sandbox, Human Request, and managed Command Run choices stay explicit where a team needs them without becoming mandatory ceremony for every Workflow. The visual Console is the primary experience: **Workflow library** keeps reusable teams, drafts, and published revisions together.**Workflow Studio** lets you shape the complete responsibility hierarchy on a horizontal canvas, validate it, and publish deliberately.**Run Studio** shows the live team, current plans, meaningful Activity, Human Requests, managed Actions, referenced files, and the exact completed or blocked Result.**Steering** delivers bounded new context to one exact active Member without pretending earlier work or tool effects never happened. Prefer conversation? The separate **Operator** can draft and revise Workflows, explain teams, publish when asked, start and control Runs, answer Human Requests, and inspect managed Actions. Operator and the visual interface call the same controller-owned operations, so chat never creates a second hidden copy of product truth. Oh My Subagents requires Python 3.12 or newer and supports Linux, macOS 13+, and Windows 11 x64. Install it in an isolated environment with [pipx](https://pipx.pypa.io/stable/): ``` pipx install oh-my-subagents oms init oms service install ``` Open `http://127.0.0.1:18125/` . Guided initialization selects a default workspace, configures a Codex or Claude Task provider, publishes the Starter teams, and can configure the separate Operator. SQLite is the default, so a local installation needs no database server. `oms service install` verifies the configuration and database schema, installs a native per-user background service, and starts it. The controller keeps supervising work after you close the terminal and returns at login. ``` oms service status oms service restart oms service logs --lines 200 oms service stop ``` Linux uses a systemd user service, macOS a current-user LaunchAgent, and Windows a current-user Scheduled Task. `oms service uninstall` removes the native service definition while preserving configuration, database, and provider credentials. Use `oms serve` when you prefer the portable foreground path. Install the optional driver and provide a SQLAlchemy URL during initialization: ``` pipx install "oh-my-subagents[postgres]" oms init \ --database-url "postgresql+asyncpg://oms@127.0.0.1/oms" ``` See [Getting started](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/docs/start/getting-started.md) for provider prerequisites and a complete first run, or [Database configuration](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/docs/reference/configuration.md#database) for PostgreSQL permissions, schemas, and environment overrides. `oms init` publishes eight provider-neutral Starters. Choose one when a mission is consequential or broad enough that independent ownership, durable work, or adversarial verification adds real value: | Starter | Use it when | |---|---| `production-feature-delivery` | A feature crosses contracts, implementation boundaries, integrated verification, and release readiness. | `incident-investigation-and-recovery` | A serious or intermittent failure needs competing hypotheses, supported recovery, verification, and prevention. | `migration-and-modernisation` | A large migration needs inventory, dependency-aware batches, cutover, and stale-path removal. | `deep-research-and-decision-brief` | A consequential question needs independent evidence, claim verification, and one accountable recommendation. | `decision-through-competing-prototypes` | Alternatives should be tested under one fair rubric instead of decided from prose alone. | `idea-to-validated-demo` | A product idea should become an evidence-backed position, working first demo, launch strategy, and credible pitch. | `experiment-and-replication-program` | An empirical or computational program needs explicit methods, durable execution, independent replication, and claim audit. | `security-audit-and-hardening` | A security program needs attack-surface mapping, specialised audits, validated remediation, and adversarial re-verification. | The [Starter catalog](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/examples/workflows/README.md) includes example missions, expected deliverables, and guidance on when a simpler team is better. A one-Member Workflow is valid—and usually wiser—when delegation would add ceremony without independent evidence, useful specialization, or real integration. **Choose or design a team.** Start from an included Starter Workflow or shape a responsibility tree in Workflow Studio.**Publish a stable revision.** Every Run keeps the exact team contract it started with.**Give the lead one complete prompt.** Managers plan, delegate, adapt, and integrate while OMS supervises runtime state.**Stay involved where judgment matters.** Steer an active Member or answer a typed Human Request when the team genuinely needs you.**Receive the accountable Result.** Read the lead's exact completed or blocked outcome and follow its references into detailed workspace files. [Get started](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/docs/start/getting-started.md)[Understand Workflows and teams](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/docs/concepts/workflows-and-teams.md)[Author a Workflow](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/docs/guides/author-a-workflow.md)[Run and operate work](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/docs/guides/run-and-operate.md)[Use the Console and Operator](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/docs/guides/console-and-operator.md)[Migrate from Banksia](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/docs/guides/migrate-from-banksia.md)[Configure the runtime](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/docs/reference/configuration.md)[Troubleshoot an installation](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/docs/help/troubleshooting.md)[Contribute](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)[Report an issue](https://github.com/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/issues) Oh My Subagents is open source under the [MIT License](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/LICENSE), except for the visual Console in [ console/](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/console), which contains material derived from n8n and is distributed under the [Sustainable Use License](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/console/LICENSE). That license permits internal business, non-commercial, and personal use; redistribution is limited to free, non-commercial distribution. See the [Console notice](/ringlochid/oh-my-subagents/blob/main/console/NOTICE)for attribution and the modification notice.