Subagent MCP

Most agent setups ask one model inside one harness to plan, implement, and review the same work. That can leave the same assumptions in every role — closer to grading your own homework than getting an independent review.

Subagent MCP lets Codex remain the main agent and orchestrator while delegating work to external agent runtimes. An external agent runtime is a model paired with its native harness. Claude with Claude Code, a Cursor-supported model with Cursor's harness, and Qwen with its native harness are examples, not hard-coded branches: adapters connect each runtime through the same normalized lifecycle.

These runtimes supplement Codex's native subagent pool. Where a native harness supports subscription-backed use, work can draw on that provider's existing quota; actual concurrency and capabilities still depend on installed adapters and provider limits. Subagent MCP does not enable usage credits or overage, and managed provider work fails closed when no-overage evidence or required identity, model, workspace, or session data is missing.

The project and repository are named Subagent MCP. The Python distribution and command are subagent-harness-mcp because the shorter package name was already taken.

Preview: 0.1.0a13 targets Windows. The local MCP, deterministic adapter, package, and localhost UI are usable. Live Claude Code work remains gated until the exact native-harness and no-overage canary passes.

Install

Install uv first if you do not already have it:

winget install --id=astral-sh.uv -e

Then install the pinned preview and connect it to Codex:

uv tool install subagent-harness-mcp==0.1.0a13
codex mcp add subagent-mcp -- subagent-harness-mcp serve

Start a new Codex task after registration. You can confirm the installation at any time:

subagent-harness-mcp --version
codex mcp list

If 0.1.0a13 has not reached PyPI yet, install the current checkout instead:

uv tool install .

Open the local UI

subagent-harness-mcp ui

This opens http://127.0.0.1:8765 for settings, health, and read-only activity. It does not require the MCP server to be active. Keep the command running while the UI is open; it is not an agent chat window and leaves no background daemon after exit.

Choose another fixed port, or ask the OS for a temporary one, when needed:

subagent-harness-mcp ui --port 9123
subagent-harness-mcp ui --port 0

Use it from Codex

After registering the server and configuring a runtime, start a new Codex task and delegate in natural language. For example:

Use Subagent MCP to ask an external agent to review this change, then evaluate its findings independently.

Codex decides what to delegate, observes the result, and keeps the final judgment. Underneath, each adapter maps the same lifecycle to its native harness: spawn, inspect or wait, send follow-up input or interrupt, then close.

To keep Codex supervision lean, leave lifecycle responses in their default compact mode and use one agent_wait call with its five-minute default. The MCP waits locally and wakes Codex only for completion, required input, or a timeout; request full mode only when diagnosing a problem.

How it fits together

flowchart LR
    C["Codex<br/>Main agent & orchestrator"]
    M["Subagent MCP<br/>Gateway"]
    UI["Localhost UI<br/>Settings & activity"]

    C -->|"stdio MCP<br/>delegate · steer · observe"| M
    UI --> M

    subgraph E["External agent runtimes — adapter-driven"]
        R1["Model<br/>+<br/>native harness"]
        R2["Model<br/>+<br/>native harness"]
        RN["More runtimes<br/>via future adapters"]
    end

    M -->|"normalized lifecycle"| R1
    M -->|"normalized lifecycle"| R2
    M -->|"normalized lifecycle"| RN

A runtime may be Claude with Claude Code, a Cursor-supported model with Cursor's harness, Qwen with its native harness, or another adapter. These are examples of the adapter shape, not special cases in the architecture.

Subagent MCP owns the normalized lifecycle, status, redaction, leases, and circuits. Each adapter translates that contract to its native harness without writing shared state directly. See the architecture for details.

What works in this preview

Green deterministic tests prove the local contract; they do not prove that a live provider is ready.

Other MCP clients

Point any stdio-compatible MCP client at the installed command:

{
  "command": "subagent-harness-mcp",
  "args": ["serve"]
}

The MCP exposes versioned runtime, project-trust, agent-lifecycle, and workspace tools. Public schemas live in schemas/.

Safety and billing

• Subagent MCP never enables usage credits or changes billing settings.
• Managed provider work fails closed on missing identity, model, workspace, session, or no-overage evidence; it does not silently choose a fallback.
• Provider Refresh is a no-model preflight. It never launches a canary or task; when a native harness cannot expose pre-turn quota evidence, the UI reports Unknown instead of spending provider quota to manufacture an answer.
• Provider model IDs and reasoning settings remain native, opaque values.
• Product data stays in explicit local config, state, and data roots. Optional client registration uses the client's official command and verifies the exact entry instead of directly rewriting unrelated configuration.
• Native transcripts remain owned by the native harness. Treat agent output as untrusted advice and verify it before applying changes.

Read the full threat model and report vulnerabilities privately as described in SECURITY.md.

Development

CONTRIBUTING.md contains the deterministic test workflow and adapter guidelines. Subagent MCP is released under the MIT License.