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Visibility bump: #3984 / #3991 (AgentTool event streaming propagation) — status update requested #5742

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@mattmcc-attest

Filing to bump visibility on the long-running thread around AgentTool event streaming.

  • Issue: #3984 — "Feature Request: Support Event Streaming propagation from AgentTool (Sub-agents) to Runner". Opened 2025-12-20, 15 ❤️ reactions on the original post, last maintainer comment 2026-02-11 ("currently under review").
  • PR: #3991 — "feat(agent-tool): Add event streaming propagation from AgentTool sub-agents to Runner". Opened 2025-12-21 by @sarojrout, 18 commits, 36 PR-conversation comments, 28 review comments. Last update 2026-05-15. Currently in a dirty merge state.

The problem (one sentence): when a sub-agent is wrapped as AgentTool, its events (function_call, function_response, partial-text, per-tool thinking) are consumed inside AgentTool.run_async — only the final merged text returns to the parent Runner. That makes long-running sub-agents look unresponsive on the wire and blocks any kind of per-step UI feedback in real time.

Workarounds in the wild (visible across the comment threads on #3984 and #3991):

  • asyncio.Queue + contextvars + a parallel transport that merges sub-agent events with the SSE stream (see @CS-PK's comment on #3984 for a production description).
  • /run_sse route overrides re-implementing ADK's event serialisation.
  • Background drain tasks bridging child Runners' events into the parent stream.

Each of these is a private re-implementation of what should be a first-class feature, and each mirrors ADK internals — so each is fragile to internal changes between releases.

Asks:

  1. Status update from the ADK team — is feat(agent-tool): Add event streaming propagation from AgentTool sub-agents to Runner #3991's approach (run_async_with_events() + dispatcher change in functions.py) the intended direction, or is a different design in flight?
  2. Design feedback on feat(agent-tool): Add event streaming propagation from AgentTool sub-agents to Runner #3991 — the PR has had several rounds of community review/revisions and the author is responsive. If there's blocking feedback, a single round-trip from a maintainer would likely unstick it.
  3. Label / triage signal — Feature Request: Support Event Streaming propagation from AgentTool (Sub-agents) to Runner #3984 is still on needs review 5+ months after acknowledgement. Even moving it to a clearer state (accepted, proposed design needed, etc.) would help the community know whether to keep polishing feat(agent-tool): Add event streaming propagation from AgentTool sub-agents to Runner #3991 or wait.

Two reaction counts that suggest this matters to a lot of teams: 15 ❤️ on #3984's OP, 36 comments on #3991 from across the community. A short status note would go a long way.

Thanks for considering 🙏

Activity

  1. surajksharma07 commented on May 19, 2026

    @surajksharma07
    Collaborator

    @mattmcc-attest — PR #3991's approach (run_async_with_events + dispatcher change in functions.py) is the direction we're going, and @sarojrout has done a great job keeping it current through all the rebases.

    For anyone blocked today, applying @sarojrout's patch locally should unblock you — just make sure to test it thoroughly on your actual workload before relying on it in production.

    If you run into any edge cases, please do share them here — that kind of real-world feedback will definitely help move the final review along faster!

    Team is looking more into it.
    Thanks!

  2. added
    needs review[Status] The PR/issue is awaiting review from the maintainer
    core[Component] This issue is related to the core interface and implementation
    on May 19, 2026
  3. surajksharma07 commented on May 19, 2026

    @surajksharma07
    Collaborator

    @Jacksunwei Please have a look into it once.

  4. matta-pie commented on Jul 18, 2026

    @matta-pie

    Any update?

  5. added
    spam[Status] Issues suspected of having comments which are spam
    on Jul 21, 2026
  6. DeanChensj commented on Jul 22, 2026

    @DeanChensj
    Collaborator

    Hi @mattmcc-attest , thanks for the PR, this feature request is already supported via the Single-Turn Sub-Agent pattern, which is the recommended way to compose agents in ADK 2.0. Do you see any gap to migrate from AgentTool to single-turn sub-agent?

  7. deleted a comment from adk-bot on Jul 22, 2026
  8. removed
    spam[Status] Issues suspected of having comments which are spam
    on Jul 22, 2026
  9. adk-bot commented on Jul 29, 2026

    @adk-bot
    Collaborator

    This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity for 7 days after a maintainer requested clarification. It will be closed if no further activity occurs within 7 days.

  10. added
    stale[Status] Issues which have been marked inactive since there is no user response
    request clarification[Status] The maintainer need clarification or more information from the author
    on Jul 29, 2026
  11. adk-bot commented on Aug 6, 2026

    @adk-bot
    Collaborator

    This has been automatically closed because it has been marked as stale for over 7 days.

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core[Component] This issue is related to the core interface and implementationneeds review[Status] The PR/issue is awaiting review from the maintainerrequest clarification[Status] The maintainer need clarification or more information from the authorstale[Status] Issues which have been marked inactive since there is no user response

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