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[workshop-sync] side-quest-21-01-sub-agent-syntax.md: incorrect claim that unsupported sub-agent fields are stripped with a warning

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
88/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
go
Domain
documentation

Research direction

Start with workshop/side-quest-21-01-sub-agent-syntax.md, then compare its claims with pkg/parser/sub_agent_extractor.go and the named sub-agent validation tests. Update the incorrect explanation and checkpoint so they match the parser behavior, and confirm the exercise no longer teaches learners to avoid a warning that does not occur.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

documentation

Workshop file reviewed

workshop/side-quest-21-01-sub-agent-syntax.md

Problem

The file states, regarding sub-agent frontmatter:

Any fields other than description and model are stripped from sub-agent frontmatter at runtime with a warning.

And later, as a checkpoint item:

  • I did not see warnings about stripped sub-agent fields in that run

This is incorrect. The exercise itself asks learners to remove engine: openai from the sub-agent block as if it would otherwise cause a stripped-field warning, but the actual compiler does not strip or warn about extra fields at all.

Current correct syntax

Per pkg/parser/sub_agent_extractor.go in github/gh-aw:

Sub-agent frontmatter keys and their order are preserved without filtering; boundary whitespace is trimmed.

And ValidateInlineSubAgentsFrontmatter is explicitly "best-effort" and only warns on frontmatter parse errors (e.g. unterminated YAML strings) or duplicate agent names — never on unsupported/arbitrary fields. Unit tests (sub_agent_validation_test.go) confirm this: TestValidateInlineSubAgentsFrontmatter_ArbitraryFields and _PreservedFields explicitly include engine: copilot and other arbitrary fields in a sub-agent block and assert assert.Empty(t, warnings, ...).

The official Inline Sub-Agents reference only lists model and description as documented frontmatter fields, but does not state that other fields are stripped or produce a warning — they are simply preserved/ignored by the compiler without validation.

Suggested fix

Remove or rephrase the "stripped... with a warning" claim and the related checkpoint item. Instead, state that only description and model are documented/supported sub-agent fields, and that other fields (like engine) are not validated or used by the runtime, but will not produce a compiler warning. Consider reframing the exercise's "fix" step around correctness/clarity rather than avoiding a warning that does not actually occur.

Generated by 🔍 Workshop Sync Check · copilot · auto · 87.5 AIC · ⌖ 5.89 AIC · ⊞ 9.2K · ◷

  • expires on Oct 4, 2026, 4:53 AM UTC
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Merged PRs (30d)
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