Generalist agent hangs

[turmanticant]

What happened?

Hey! Whenever gemini-cli defers to the generalist agent it hangs forever. Simple changes like folder creation hang. I've let it wait for up to an hour before cancelling it.

Instructing the model not to defer to sub agents resolves this issue. After instructing it to not use sub agents, it quickly performs the task.

There is no hint as to what is causing it to hang. I have tried running it with --debug, but I haven't gotten more information about root cause.

What did you expect to happen?

To perform the requested action in a reasonable amount of time.

Client information

Client Information

Run gemini to enter the interactive CLI, then run the /about command.

> /about
│ About Gemini CLI                                                                                                                 │
│                                                                                                                                  │
│ CLI Version                                  0.32.1                                                                              │
│ Git Commit                                   e8a57c78c                                                                           │
│ Model                                        Auto (Gemini 3)                                                                     │
│ Sandbox                                      no sandbox                                                                          │
│ OS                                           linux                                                                               │
│ Auth Method                                  Logged in with Google (xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx)                                                │
│ Tier                                         Gemini Code Assist for individuals

Login information

Google account

Anything else we need to know?

No response

[rahimnathwani]

I'm seeing this issue as well. It has been sitting for 16 hours. I tried restarting the cli and switching to the most powerful model, but I still get the same issue.

[bum2free]

I tried this version "0.34.0-nightly.20260304.28af4e127", the issue is resolved. You can build from source

[djrumph]

Also seeing this issue.

I stop the task after a few minutes, ask if it has the information it needs to continue and, if not, I will provide it, and it usually tells me it has what ie needs and continues with the work.

[cycloarcane]

Also seeing this issue. Even with test simple tasks. Simply saying 'don't use the generalist agent' means the task is completed successfully very quickly.

> is there anyway we can test the generalist agent and see why it hangs, can I see detailed output for it?                                                                                                                                 
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✦ The generalist agent operates as a "sub-session." When I delegate a task to it, it runs independently and only returns a summary of its work once it has completely finished.


  Why you can't see detailed output while it hangs:
   * Encapsulation: The sub-agent's thought process and individual tool outputs are hidden from this main history to keep your context window efficient.
   * "Black Box" Execution: If it hangs, there is no way for me to "peer into" its active memory. I only receive the result or a timeout error.

  How we can debug it together:
  We can try to "ping" it with a trivial task to see if it's a total failure or just a scope issue.


  Test Case: I will ask the generalist to simply create a dummy file and report back. If this works, it means the agent is alive, and the previous "hangs" were likely due to the complexity of editing 16 files simultaneously.


  I'll run this test now.


ℹ Request cancelled.
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ -  Generalist Agent Delegating to agent 'generalist'                                                                                                                                                                                 │
│

[turmanticant]

I encountered this and other hangs on the new latest version 0.33.0.

However like @bum2free, switching to nightly resolved my issues.

npm i -g @google/gemini-cli@0.34.0-nightly.20260310.4653b126f

[turmanticant]

I upgraded to 0.35.0-nightly.20260314.3038fdce2 and am again plagued with sub-agent hangs. The whole experience(not just subagents, but especially subagents) experiences this in a way that I don't experience with claude.