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claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [FEATURE] Open $EDITOR (Ctrl-G) from the subagent prompt editor before dispatch

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The main TUI input supports breaking out to $EDITOR (Ctrl-G) for long-form prompts. The subagent prompt input — shown after selecting an agent but before the agent is dispatched — does not. The only workaround is to start the agent with a short prompt and then continue, which defeats the purpose of authoring a long, considered prompt up front.

Root Cause

Subagent prompts are exactly where long-form authoring matters most: they have to be self-contained (the subagent has no prior context) and they often include file paths, line numbers, constraints, and acceptance criteria. The single-line-style box is too cramped for that, and pasting from an external editor loses the box-border characters (see #6151).

Fix Action

Fix / Workaround

The main TUI input supports breaking out to $EDITOR (Ctrl-G) for long-form prompts. The subagent prompt input — shown after selecting an agent but before the agent is dispatched — does not. The only workaround is to start the agent with a short prompt and then continue, which defeats the purpose of authoring a long, considered prompt up front.

Allow Ctrl-G (or the configured external-editor binding) to open the subagent prompt buffer in $EDITOR from the pre-dispatch input, mirroring the behavior already available in the main TUI prompt.

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Summary

The main TUI input supports breaking out to $EDITOR (Ctrl-G) for long-form prompts. The subagent prompt input — shown after selecting an agent but before the agent is dispatched — does not. The only workaround is to start the agent with a short prompt and then continue, which defeats the purpose of authoring a long, considered prompt up front.

Why this matters

Subagent prompts are exactly where long-form authoring matters most: they have to be self-contained (the subagent has no prior context) and they often include file paths, line numbers, constraints, and acceptance criteria. The single-line-style box is too cramped for that, and pasting from an external editor loses the box-border characters (see #6151).

Request

Allow Ctrl-G (or the configured external-editor binding) to open the subagent prompt buffer in $EDITOR from the pre-dispatch input, mirroring the behavior already available in the main TUI prompt.

Related

  • #6151 — closed bug about cursor navigation in the subagent prompt editor; the reporter also asked for $EDITOR support.
  • #18990 — request to make the external editor configurable (main prompt).

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