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Helix delegates parallel work to sub-agents: the model calls the Agent tool, the agent runs in the background, and the session keeps going. The messaging is bidirectional — the session can steer a running agent and read its result, and agents send findings back. You watch and steer all of it from two surfaces: the fleet list and the agent viewer. In the orchestrator, Helix dispatches the crew itself when a stage needs parallel work. In agent mode, your agent has the same tools and you can ask for parallel work directly.

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The fleet list

Dispatched agents appear under your prompt:
The fleet list under the composer: a finished agent with a checkmark, three agents running commands with live token counts, an overflow row reading + 1 more, and the key hint row.

The fleet list: a finished agent lingering, three running, one more counted.

Each row carries the agent’s name, its dispatch, and live stats. The list shows at most four rows; the rest are counted as + N more, never dropped. The digits are slots held for an agent’s lifetime — an agent that finishes and ages out never renumbers the ones below it, so 5 opens what it opened a minute ago. Finished agents linger for a minute, and the clock restarts each time you open or close one, so an agent you keep returning to cannot vanish mid-read. The list steps aside while a picker such as /model holds focus.

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The agent viewer

Open an agent and its conversation replaces the chat — it is not a split pane. The transcript renders with the same components as the main session: tool calls are real cards, markdown renders, diffs render, errors are styled as errors. It updates live while the agent works.
The sub-agent viewer replacing the chat: header with agent name and live stats, Bash and Read tool cards, the working line, and a steering instruction typed in the composer.

The agent viewer: live tool cards, the working line, and a steer typed into the composer.

The composer at the bottom is the same editor as the main chat, and whatever you type steers the agent you are watching. A steer that cannot land keeps your text in the box and tells you why — an agent that has already finished cannot be steered. Esc closes the viewer and returns you to the main conversation; the agent keeps running.

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Failures report as failures

An agent that never reached the model — no tokens, no tools, no output — is reported as an error with the reason (model availability, provider credential, rate limits), not as a finished agent with an empty transcript.

The rest of the session surface

The dashboard, the session commands, and the working line.