A Claude Code CLI flag, read out of the shipped bundle.
It has been in the build since v2.1.211, including the newest one read.
Emit subagent text and thinking blocks in the output stream as assistant and user messages with parent_tool_use_id set, so you can reconstruct each subagent's transcript. Without this flag, Claude Code omits the text and thinking blocks of a subagent that runs in the foreground. Requires --print and --output-format stream-json. Claude Code also forwards messages from nested subagents, setting parent_tool_use_id to the ID of the Agent or Skill tool call that started each one; this requires Claude Code v2.1.219 or later, and messages of subagents that a forked skill spawns, and of nested forked skills, require v2.1.275 or later. The CLAUDE_CODE_FORWARD_SUBAGENT_TEXT environment variable enables the same behavior. Requires Claude Code v2.1.211 or later
Anthropic's own wording.
Read off CLI reference, captured 2026-09-26.
First seen v2.1.211 15 Jul 2026
Last seen v2.1.308 22 Oct 2026
Builds86 / 149on this box, as of v2.1.308
Written about v2.1.211 first named in a changelog, 15 Jul 2026
v2.1.211in the build not in the build never minedv2.1.308
In the changelogs
1
Releases whose published page names --forward-subagent-text.
The earliest release whose published evidence quoted --forward-subagent-text was v2.1.211, 15 Jul 2026. That is the oldest release this project wrote about it, so it is a floor on the name's age and not the release that introduced it. It is not a presence reading: which builds carried the name is the table below.
v2.1.211 – v2.1.30886 builds15 Jul 2026 → 22 Oct 2026 ◆in the build
Build by build
86
One row per release since the first build this name was read out of. Absent means the build was read and the name was not in it, never mined means no bundle for that release was ever archived, and a declared type or a default is only ever what that release's own bundle stated.
Read out of the published npm bundle release by release, and out of Anthropic's own documentation as this site captured it. Nothing on this page is a description anybody here wrote about what the CLI flag does. All CLI flags.
