Show HN: Tracon (air traffic control for subagents)

A developer released Tracon, an open-source MIT-licensed tool that monitors Claude Code subagents by tailing transcripts in ~/.claude/projects/ and checking each git worktree with ps, lsof, and git, flagging blocked prompts, idle agents, failing-command loops, simultaneous file edits, and brief drift. Tracon runs read-only on the user's machine, with only the text a Haiku judge reads for classification leaving the machine unless the user passes --no-judge, and it is installable via `uvx tracon --demo` on macOS and Linux with Python 3.12+. The developer said the tool addresses drift and inactive subagents observed particularly with Opus 5.5, and noted it is not affiliated with Anthropic.

My Claude Code workflow usually involves... a lot of subagents. I make one Opus model coordinate work as my tech lead, it dispatches subagents using models appropriate for the task into their own git worktrees, and then I try to multitask and do something else while they run. I'd been finding lately particularly with Opus 5.5 that there was a ton of drift and instances of subagents not doing anything and it was evading the attention of the TL despite the instructions I gave it to have them report in at a regular cadence. Running tracon in a split terminal is my new personal workflow. It gives me early indicators when things start going off the rails ex. blocked on a prompt, idle, looping on a failing command, simultaneous edits to files other subagents are editing, drifting off the brief, etc. and I can interrogate the subagent's workflow and by pressing n the main agent gets a note to make a call on how and if to correct it. Read-only and runs on your machine: it tails transcripts in ~/.claude/projects/ and checks each worktree with ps, lsof, and git -- only thing that leaves your machine is what the Haiku judge reads for classification or optionally you can turn that off with --no-judge . I've found it super useful for the game I'm building and figured others in the community might also find it useful. If you just want to give it a spin without committing: uvx tracon --demo macOS and Linux, Python 3.12+, MIT. Not affiliated with Anthropic. Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50046981 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50046981 Points: 1 Comments: 0