Staying in control
What helpers may do, how to stop them, and what to keep an eye on when agents run agents.
When agents start other agents, a lot can happen in the background. Here's what supermux does to keep that safe, and what's left to you.
Helpers can't wait for you
Helpers and council members run in the background, so no one sees their permission requests. supermux therefore only lets them run at access levels that never stop to ask a person:
| Agent | Levels a helper may use |
|---|---|
| Claude Code | Bypass, or Don't ask (refuses instead of asking) |
| Codex | Full access, Auto, or Read only |
| Cursor | Force or Auto-review |
| OpenCode | Allow or Read only |
| Grok | Always approve |
| Antigravity | Bypass or Plan |
If you want a helper to read only, say so when you ask, for example "use a read-only Codex subagent to review this".
Sessions an agent opens for you in the sidebar are different: they can ask you, like any session. They start at the agent's most open level, so lower it in their composer if you want to approve each step.
Stop things
- A helper: Stop on its card.
- A council: Stop council on its card.
- Everything a session started: archive the session. Its helpers and their helpers stop with it, and its councils end.
You hear about helpers through their parent
Helpers and council members never send you notifications, and their chats aren't in your sidebar. What they do reaches you through the agent that started them: its cards, the strip above the composer, and its replies.
Things to keep an eye on
- There's no cap on how many helpers an agent starts. Watch the strip above the composer, and say how many you want when it matters.
- A message brings an archived session back. If an agent messages a session you archived, that session restores itself to read it.
- Any session can archive any other, including your Agents. You can bring one back from Archived.
- Worktrees stay. Worktrees made for helpers and council members aren't deleted when they stop. Clean them up in Settings ▸ Worktrees.
- A helper that's waiting on something stays waiting. supermux only nudges a helper once it's idle, and there's no time limit. Stop it from its card if it's stuck.
What only Agents can do
A few tools are kept for Agents: creating new Agents, muting other sessions, and choosing which session a chat talks to. Everything else on this page works from any session.