{"version":"2.1.311","anchor":"agent-summaries-hold-when-the-sub-agents-prompt-cache-is-c","canonical_anchor":"agent-summaries-hold-when-the-sub-agents-prompt-cache-is-c","heading":"Background agent summaries can wait for the sub-agent's first reply","tier":"internal","area":"Background Agents","scope":"individual","heads_up":false,"url":"https:\/\/changelogs.core-directive.com\/v\/2.1.311\/e\/agent-summaries-hold-when-the-sub-agents-prompt-cache-is-c","release_url":"https:\/\/changelogs.core-directive.com\/v\/2.1.311","markdown":"### Background agent summaries can wait for the sub-agent's first reply\n\nSummaries of background agents can now wait while the sub-agent's own request has no reply yet, up to a time limit\n\n**What**\n\nA sub-agent is a separate helper Claude starts to work on part of a task, sometimes in the background. Claude Code writes short summaries of what such an agent is doing. These summaries used to be made on a fixed timer. Now a summary can be held while the sub-agent's own request has not had a response yet and its prompt cache is likely cold. The prompt cache is stored earlier context that makes repeat requests cheaper and faster, and cold means it is not ready yet. The check repeats until a maximum hold time passes.\n\nThe summary also forgets its previous text if the next request would be missing a message the earlier summary was based on.\n\n**Why**\n\nThis avoids extra requests that waste the cache, and stops summaries from building on text that no longer matches the conversation.\n\n- Area: Background Agents\n- Tier: Under the hood\n- Useful: 1\/5\n- Signal: 2\/5\n- Scope: individual\n- Heads-up: no"}