fix(tui): approval popup disappears when switching b/w agent sessions, subagent hangs forever

[rakshith1928]

Issue

No existing issue bug reported directly.

Context

In the TUI, when a subagent (Task tool) hit a permission prompt, opening the session list (ctrl+x → down), viewing the subagent, and coming back made the approval popup disappear. The subagent was then stuck forever waiting for an answer that could never be given.

The cause: switching sessions evicts the previous session (and its children) from the sync store, and the eviction deleted pending permission/question asks. These asks are one-shot SSE events — once dropped, nothing ever brought them back.

Implementation

• evict() no longer deletes draft.permission / draft.question. The permission.replied / question.replied handlers already clean them up on the answer.
• New syncPending() refetches the server's pending lists (permission.list / question.list — both endpoints already existed, nothing used them) whenever a session syncs or the app bootstraps. This also recovers asks missed during an SSE disconnect. It merges instead of overwriting, so asks arriving mid-fetch survive, and answered asks aren't resurrected by a stale list.

Also added /permission + /question default routes to the TUI test fixture and 4 regression tests.

Screenshots / Video

before	after
subagentsnotworking.mp4	subagentsworking.mp4

How to Test

Manual/local verification

• bun test test/cli/cmd/tui/ test/kilocode/ from packages/tui/ — 71 pass (agent-executed)
• bun run script/check-opencode-annotations.ts --worktree — clean (agent-executed)
• Typecheck: only pre-existing errors from missing optional deps in other packages, confirmed identical with changes stashed (agent-executed)

Reviewer test steps

1. Add to your project's kilo.json so tool calls need approval:

{
  "permission": {
    "edit": "ask",
    "bash": "ask"
  }
}

(or use the pattern form: "edit": { "src/**": "ask", "*": "ask" })
2. Run kilo, ask it something that dispatches a subagent which edits a file (e.g. "use a Task subagent to edit src/foo.ts")
3. When the approval popup appears, press ctrl+x → down, open the subagent's session, then go back to the parent
4. The approval popup should still be there and answerable(which was not); the subagent should continue after answering
5. Before this fix: the popup is gone and the subagent spins forever

Blocked checks and substitute verification

Checklist

• Issue linked above, or exception explained
• Tests/verification described
• Screenshots/video included for visual changes, or marked N/A
• Changeset considered for user-facing changes
• I personally reviewed the diff and can explain the changes, including any AI-assisted work.

Get in Touch

Discord @TRAVIX26

[kilo-code-bot]

Code Review Summary

Status: No Issues Found | Recommendation: Merge

Files Reviewed (2 files)

• packages/tui/src/context/sync.tsx
• packages/tui/test/kilocode/sync-pending-asks.test.tsx

Previous Review Summary (commit 0e66528)

Current summary above is authoritative. Previous snapshots are kept for context only.

Previous review (commit 0e66528)

Status: 1 Issue Found | Recommendation: Address before merge

Overview

Severity	Count
CRITICAL	0
WARNING	1
SUGGESTION	0

Issue Details (click to expand)

WARNING

File	Line	Issue
packages/tui/src/context/sync.tsx	228	Failed permission/question list responses are treated as empty, which can wipe in-memory asks

Files Reviewed (4 files)

• .changeset/tui-permission-eviction.md - 0 issues
• packages/tui/src/context/sync.tsx - 1 issue
• packages/tui/test/fixture/tui-sdk.ts - 0 issues
• packages/tui/test/kilocode/sync-pending-asks.test.tsx - 0 issues

Fix these issues in Kilo Cloud

---

_{Reviewed by grok-4.6 · Input: 96K · Output: 10.1K · Cached: 235.3K}

_{Review guidance: REVIEW.md from base branch main}