Sub-agent tool policy

Tool policy

Sub-agents use the same profile and tool-policy pipeline as the parent or target agent first. After that, OpenClaw applies the sub-agent restriction layer.

Sub-agents always lose gateway, agents_list, session_status, progress_card, cron, message, sessions_send, and the conversations_* tools regardless of depth or role (system-level/interactive tools, parent-owned progress cards, direct delivery surfaces, or tools the main agent should coordinate). This hard-deny layer is derived from the persisted sub-agent session envelope on every turn, including resumed and visible dashboard sessions; ordinary allow/alsoAllow entries cannot override it. Hidden launches also disable message before tool construction as defense in depth. Sub-agents at the configured depth cap additionally lose subagents, sessions_list, sessions_history, and sessions_spawn, so their communication stays on the announce chain.

sessions_history remains a bounded, redacted recall view here too — it is neither a raw transcript dump nor a prose-only rendering.

By default, sub-agents below depth 5 receive sessions_spawn, subagents, sessions_list, and sessions_history so they can manage their children.

Override via config

{  agents: {    defaults: {      subagents: {        maxConcurrent: 1,      },    },  },  tools: {    subagents: {      tools: {        // deny wins        deny: ["gateway", "cron"],        // if allow is set, it becomes allow-only (deny still wins)        // allow: ["read", "exec", "process"]      },    },  },}

tools.subagents.tools.allow is a final allow-only filter. It can narrow the already-resolved tool set, but it cannot add back a tool removed by tools.profile. For example, tools.profile: "coding" includes web_search/web_fetch but not the browser tool. To let coding-profile sub-agents use browser automation, add browser at the profile stage:

{  tools: {    profile: "coding",    alsoAllow: ["browser"],  },}

Use per-agent agents.entries.*.tools.alsoAllow: ["browser"] when only one agent should get browser automation.