Description

Currently, the ANNOUNCE_EXPIRY_MS constant in src/agents/subagent-registry.ts is hardcoded to 5 minutes:

const ANNOUNCE_EXPIRY_MS = 5 * 60_000; // 5 minutes

This constant acts as a 'give up' guard for announcing subagent results back to the requester. If a subagent takes longer to complete or if the announcement is delayed (e.g., during complex development tasks or waiting for CI pipelines), OpenClaw 'gives up' after 5 minutes with the following log message:

Subagent announce give up (expiry) (endedAgo=...)

Impact

For real-world workflows involving complex DEV agents or long CI checks, this 5-minute window is often too short. When the expiry is hit, the results are never announced back to the requester (e.g., the ORC agent or the user in a chat), causing the entire workflow to hang in a 'stuck' state even though the task might have completed successfully in the background.

Suggested Solution

1. Make it configurable: Introduce a new configuration option in openclaw.json, for example:

   {
     "agents": {
       "subagents": {
         "announceExpiryMinutes": 60
       }
     }
   }

2. Increase Default: Consider increasing the default value from 5 minutes to 60 minutes or tying it to archiveAfterMinutes.

Environment

• OpenClaw Version: 2026.2.25
• File affected: src/agents/subagent-registry.ts

This analysis was performed by Kevin Heinrichs after diagnosing hung workflows in a production-like environment.

Ref: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/issues/new