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Public story · 2026-08-26 · high
Sub-agent prompts confused users about who was asking, so v1.17.1-pre turns off ask_user unless you opt in.
Why now: Zed's pre-release channel carries this now; the change hasn't reached the stable build, so most users running Zed haven't seen it yet.
Zed turned off its ask_user tool by default in v1.17.1-pre, per PR #63038.
The tool lets an agent pause and ask a clarifying question instead of guessing. That works when one visible agent talks to one visible user. It breaks once a subagent fires the same prompt, since subagents aren't always visible when they act.
The PR cites formatting issues with the tool's prompts. It also flags a harder problem: prompts "seem to be confusing when sub-agents are used, which are not always visible immediately."
Setting "ask_user": true in an agent profile restores the tool. The underlying tool still assumes one questioner, so an anonymous subagent prompt breaks that assumption every time it fires.
I've hit versions of this building with subagents myself. An interactive subagent needs a way to identify itself before it asks anything. Otherwise the person on the other end can't answer it.
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Reported by the same outlet (github.com); overlapping topics (agent, asking, assumption); pushes against this story (but).
Reported by the same outlet (github.com); overlapping topics (agent, exactly); pushes against this story (but).
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Reported by the same outlet (github.com); overlapping topics (agent, tool); pushes against this story (vs).
Reported by the same outlet (github.com); overlapping topics (agent, tool); pushes against this story (vs).
Reported by the same outlet (github.com); overlapping topics (agent, exactly); pushes against this story (vs).
Reported by the same outlet (github.com); overlapping topics (agent, tool); pushes against this story (vs).
Reported by the same outlet (github.com); overlapping topics (agent, tool); pushes against this story (vs).