Hey, thanks for the detailed report. This is a known limitation with nested subagents in the current build. It’s not a regression specifically from 3.2.21, it’s more like something that’s been there for a while and is showing up more clearly now.
What’s happening: the subagent system prompt includes a reminder telling it not to spawn additional subagents unless that’s explicitly requested. On top of that, the ability for a subagent to spawn other subagents (deep nesting like manager → subagent → more subagents) is currently limited. So your /react-manager ends up doing all the work itself instead of delegating, because the model acting as a subagent refuses to spawn further subagents.
Similar threads with the same symptom:
- System Prompt breaking reliable Subagent Spawning System Prompt breaking reliable Subagent Spawning
- Nested subagent could not be spawned in cli Nested subagent could not be spawned in cli
- Subagent delegation not working Subagent delegation not working
Workaround for now is a flat structure: have the main agent delegate directly to specialist subagents (one level of nesting), without a middle orchestrator that delegates further. So instead of main -> /react-manager -> [specialists], do main -> [specialists] directly, and split the 12-step pipeline into a series of calls from the main agent.
The issue team is aware, but I can’t share an ETA for a fix yet. If I get an update, I’ll post it in the thread.