Elevator pitch

What are you proposing to change? Bullet points welcome.

  • Fix agent confusion when taskspace deletion is cancelled by user
  • Implement deferred IPC responses that wait for actual user confirmation
  • Ensure agents receive accurate feedback about deletion success/failure

Status quo

How do things work today and what problems does this cause? Why would we change things?

Today when an agent requests taskspace deletion:

  1. Agent calls delete_taskspace tool
  2. System immediately responds "success"
  3. UI shows confirmation dialog to user
  4. User can confirm or cancel, but agent already thinks deletion succeeded

Problem: Agents refuse to continue work because they assume the taskspace is deleted, even when the user cancelled the deletion dialog.

Shiny future

How will things will play out once this feature exists?

When an agent requests taskspace deletion:

  1. Agent calls delete_taskspace tool
  2. System shows confirmation dialog (no immediate response)
  3. If user confirms → actual deletion → success response to agent
  4. If user cancels → error response to agent ("Taskspace deletion was cancelled by user")

Result: Agents get accurate feedback and can continue working when deletion is cancelled.

Implementation plan

What is your implementaton plan?

Status: ✅ IMPLEMENTED

  • Added MessageHandlingResult::pending case for deferred responses
  • Store pending message IDs in ProjectManager until dialog completes
  • Send appropriate success/error response based on user choice
  • Updated IPC handler to support pending responses
  • Updated UI dialog handlers to send deferred responses

Implementation details: See taskspace-deletion-dialog-confirmation branch and related documentation updates.

Frequently asked questions

What questions have arisen over the course of authoring this document or during subsequent discussions? Keep this section up-to-date as discussion proceeds. The goal is to capture major points that came up on a PR or in a discussion forum -- and if they reoccur, to point people to the FAQ so that we can start the dialog from a more informed place.

What alternative approaches did you consider, and why did you settle on this one?

The deferred response pattern was the most straightforward solution that maintains backward compatibility while fixing the core issue. Alternative approaches like immediate cancellation or optimistic responses would have been more complex and potentially confusing.

Could this pattern be applied to other confirmation dialogs?

Yes, the MessageHandlingResult::pending pattern is reusable for any operation that requires user confirmation before completing.

Revision history

Initial version documenting the implemented dialog confirmation functionality.