Refuse archiving an agent that a published agent still delegates to

§3 says an unknown subagent key fails at publish, not at run time, and
refuseSubagentCycle enforced that in one direction only: the edge was
checked when the PARENT was written, and nothing re-checked it when the
CHILD was later archived. So a spec could validate on Monday and be
delegating into nothing by Friday.

That is what happened on 2026-09-15. activity-agent was archived while
krow-workforce-agent v2 still listed it, and every run since logged
runtime.unknown_subagent and answered activity questions without its
activity capability -- quietly, because the parent still Completed.

Both archive paths now refuse with 409 naming the dependents: the
status-only patch the UI sends, and a markdown save whose frontmatter
says archived. Only PUBLISHED parents count, so an abandoned draft
cannot pin a production agent in place. Unlike the cycle check this
fails closed when the graph cannot be read, because the only backstop
here is the failure it exists to prevent.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PJvibeSc1JYXjatankqM1g

go-api/internal/httpserver/definitions_api_test.go

@@ -1520,3 +1520,84 @@ Find the shifts nobody has taken.
 		t.Errorf("version moved on a restore: %v -> %v", arc["version"], got)
 	}
 }
+
+// The reverse of the cycle and unknown-key checks. Those prove an edge is
+// valid when the PARENT is written; this proves the edge stays valid when the
+// CHILD is archived. Without it a published parent keeps delegating into
+// nothing — exactly what krow-workforce-agent did after activity-agent was
+// archived under it on 2026-09-15.
+func TestArchivingADelegatedSubagentIsRefused(t *testing.T) {
+	r := newRBAC(t)
+
+	agent := func(id, name, status string, version int, subagents ...string) string {
+		var sub string
+		if len(subagents) > 0 {
+			sub = "subagents:\n"
+			for _, s := range subagents {
+				sub += "  - " + s + "\n"
+			}
+		}
+		return fmt.Sprintf(`---
+id: %s
+name: %s
+description: part of a delegation graph
+status: %s
+version: %d
+pages:
+  - candidates
+%s---
+
+## Instructions
+Delegate.
+`, id, name, status, version, sub)
+	}
+
+	res := r.as(r.admin, "POST", "/api/v1/agent-definitions", map[string]any{
+		"markdown": agent("dep-child", "Child", "published", 1), "visibility": "organization",
+	})
+	if res.code != http.StatusCreated {
+		t.Fatalf("create child: status %d (%v)", res.code, res.body)
+	}
+	childID, _ := res.record(t)["id"].(string)
+
+	res = r.as(r.admin, "POST", "/api/v1/agent-definitions", map[string]any{
+		"markdown": agent("dep-parent", "Parent", "published", 1, "dep-child"), "visibility": "organization",
+	})
+	if res.code != http.StatusCreated {
+		t.Fatalf("create parent: status %d (%v)", res.code, res.body)
+	}
+	parentID, _ := res.record(t)["id"].(string)
+
+	// Both ways of archiving must be refused: the status-only patch the UI
+	// sends, and a markdown save whose frontmatter says archived.
+	for name, patch := range map[string]map[string]any{
+		"status patch":  {"status": "archived"},
+		"markdown save": {"markdown": agent("dep-child", "Child", "archived", 2)},
+	} {
+		res = r.as(r.admin, "PATCH", "/api/v1/agent-definitions/"+childID, patch)
+		if res.code != http.StatusConflict {
+			t.Fatalf("%s: archiving a delegated-to agent: status %d, want 409 (%v)", name, res.code, res.body)
+		}
+		if body := fmt.Sprint(res.body); !strings.Contains(body, "dep-parent") {
+			t.Errorf("%s: the refusal did not name the dependent: %v", name, res.body)
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Refused, not half-applied.
+	res = r.as(r.admin, "GET", "/api/v1/agent-definitions/"+childID, nil)
+	if st, _ := res.record(t)["status"].(string); st != "published" {
+		t.Fatalf("child status after refused archives = %q, want published", st)
+	}
+
+	// A DRAFT parent does not pin the child. Move the parent to draft and the
+	// archive goes through: an abandoned experiment must not hold a
+	// production agent in place.
+	res = r.as(r.admin, "PATCH", "/api/v1/agent-definitions/"+parentID, map[string]any{"status": "draft"})
+	if res.code != http.StatusOK {
+		t.Fatalf("draft the parent: status %d (%v)", res.code, res.body)
+	}
+	res = r.as(r.admin, "PATCH", "/api/v1/agent-definitions/"+childID, map[string]any{"status": "archived"})
+	if res.code != http.StatusOK {
+		t.Fatalf("archive with only a draft dependent: status %d, want 200 (%v)", res.code, res.body)
+	}
+}

go-api/internal/service/definitions.go

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
 	"net/url"
+	"sort"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 
@@ -352,6 +353,11 @@ func (s *DefinitionsService) UpdateAgent(ctx context.Context, ident authctx.Iden
 		if err := s.refuseSubagentCycle(ctx, ident, agent.ID, agent.Subagents); err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
+		if agent.Status == "archived" {
+			if err := s.refuseArchivingDependency(ctx, ident, agent.ID); err != nil {
+				return nil, err
+			}
+		}
 		if err := s.refusePublishedRewrite(ctx, ident, repo.KindAgent,
 			agent.ID, markdown, agent.Status, agent.Version); err != nil {
 			return nil, err
@@ -361,6 +367,12 @@ func (s *DefinitionsService) UpdateAgent(ctx context.Context, ident authctx.Iden
 		if !isStr || (status != "draft" && status != "published" && status != "archived") {
 			return nil, domain.Validation("status must be one of: draft, published, archived", map[string]string{"status": "invalid"})
 		}
+		if status == "archived" {
+			did, _ := existing["definition_id"].(string)
+			if err := s.refuseArchivingDependency(ctx, ident, did); err != nil {
+				return nil, err
+			}
+		}
 		input.Status = &status
 	}
 
@@ -671,6 +683,70 @@ func (s *DefinitionsService) refuseSubagentCycle(ctx context.Context,
 	return nil
 }
 
+// refuseArchivingDependency fails an archive while a published agent in the
+// organization still delegates to the definition.
+//
+// §3 says an unknown subagent key fails at publish, not at run time, and
+// refuseSubagentCycle is half of that. This is the other half. Publish
+// validation proves the edge exists when the PARENT is written; nothing
+// re-checked it when the CHILD was later archived, so a spec could pass
+// validation on Monday and be delegating into nothing by Friday. That is what
+// happened to krow-workforce-agent on 2026-09-15: activity-agent was archived
+// under it, and every run since logged runtime.unknown_subagent and answered
+// activity questions without its activity capability — quietly, because the
+// parent still Completed.
+//
+// Only published parents count. A draft that names this agent is the author's
+// problem at their next publish, where rejectUnknownTools-style validation
+// will tell them; refusing an archive on the strength of a draft would let an
+// abandoned experiment pin a production agent in place forever.
+//
+// Unlike refuseSubagentCycle this FAILS CLOSED when the graph cannot be read.
+// The cycle check can afford to fail open because the runtime depth cap holds
+// regardless; the only backstop here is a parent that keeps answering with a
+// capability missing, which is the failure this exists to prevent.
+func (s *DefinitionsService) refuseArchivingDependency(ctx context.Context,
+	ident authctx.Identity, definitionID string) error {
+
+	if definitionID == "" {
+		return nil
+	}
+	rows, _, err := s.repo.ListAgents(ctx, ident, repo.DefinitionListParams{
+		Visibility: "organization", Limit: 500,
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		return domain.Internal(fmt.Errorf("could not check whether any published agent delegates to %q: %w", definitionID, err))
+	}
+
+	var dependents []string
+	for _, rec := range rows {
+		id, _ := rec["definition_id"].(string)
+		markdown, _ := rec["markdown"].(string)
+		status, _ := rec["status"].(string)
+		if id == "" || id == definitionID || markdown == "" || status != "published" {
+			continue
+		}
+		parsed, err := definition.ParseAgent(markdown, definition.Options{})
+		if err != nil || parsed == nil {
+			continue
+		}
+		for _, sub := range parsed.Subagents {
+			if sub == definitionID {
+				dependents = append(dependents, id)
+				break
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	if len(dependents) == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
+	sort.Strings(dependents)
+	return domain.Conflict(fmt.Sprintf(
+		"%s cannot be archived while a published agent delegates to it: %s. "+
+			"Publish a version of each without it in `subagents` first, or archive them too.",
+		definitionID, strings.Join(dependents, ", ")))
+}
+
 // refusePublishedRewrite fails a publish that would change a version already
 // published, BEFORE anything is written.
 //