Bug: Codex native subagents complete in parent session but remain lost / initializing in task status

Summary

Codex native subagents completed and returned results to the parent Codex session, but OpenClaw's task surfaces continued to show those same tasks as lost with progressSummary: "Codex native subagent is initializing."

This appears to be a task-status propagation/registry issue rather than an execution failure: the parent session received the subagent outputs and used them, but openclaw tasks list --json still recorded the tasks as lost.

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.5.18 (50a2481)
• Channel: Telegram-backed session
• Runtime shown in task store: subagent
• Task kind: codex-native

Expected behavior

After a Codex native subagent completes and the parent receives its result, task/status surfaces should show a terminal successful state, or at least stop showing the task as active/initializing.

The local CLI help for openclaw tasks documents terminal statuses:

--status <name>   Filter by status (queued, running, succeeded, failed,
                  timed_out, cancelled, lost)

So a completed subagent that returned its result to the parent should not remain represented as initializing/lost.

Actual behavior

Two Codex native subagents were spawned from a Telegram-backed parent session. Both completed and returned output to the parent session, and the parent used the returned output.

However, task state showed both as lost with stale initializing summaries:

[
  {
    "runtime": "subagent",
    "taskKind": "codex-native",
    "status": "lost",
    "error": "Codex native subagent stopped reporting progress",
    "progressSummary": "Codex native subagent is initializing."
  },
  {
    "runtime": "subagent",
    "taskKind": "codex-native",
    "status": "lost",
    "error": "Codex native subagent stopped reporting progress",
    "progressSummary": "Codex native subagent is initializing."
  }
]

Evidence was captured from:

openclaw tasks list --json
openclaw tasks audit --json

Why this seems like a bug

The task store's terminal status conflicts with observed parent-session behavior:

• Subagent output was delivered to the parent Codex session.
• Parent session used the output.
• OpenClaw task status still says the subagents stopped reporting progress / remained initializing.

This confuses users because task status surfaces can report active/lost initializing subagents even after the parent has consumed their results.

Related issues checked

• #50736: older subagent pipeline issue where spawns could silently fail or announce-back could fail. Closed as implemented on current main.
• #70234: Codex ACP subagents failing with ACP_TURN_FAILED / auth bridge issues. Closed as fixed.

This report is not the same failure mode:

• The subagents did not silently fail from the parent session's perspective.
• The parent got usable results.
• The remaining issue is task/status propagation into OpenClaw task surfaces.

Reproduction outline

1. In a Telegram-backed OpenClaw session, ask the parent Codex agent to spawn two Codex native subagents.
2. Let both subagents complete and return summaries to the parent.
3. Have the parent use or persist the returned output.
4. Run:

openclaw tasks list --json
openclaw tasks audit --json

1. Observe completed Codex native subagents listed as lost / initializing despite completed parent-session delivery.

Impact

• Users cannot trust task-status UI for Codex native subagents.
• Completed work appears active/lost, creating confusion and false operational warnings.
• Task audits accumulate misleading lost-task entries.

Suggested fix direction

When a Codex native subagent completion notification reaches the parent session, also update the OpenClaw task registry/task store to a successful terminal state and persist the final progress summary.

If Codex native subagents are intentionally outside the OpenClaw task lifecycle, then they should either not appear as OpenClaw subagent tasks, or the UI should label them as externally/completion-state-untracked instead of initializing.