Subagents documentation bug suggests agents can pause for tool permission approval

[josheaamzn]

Checks

• I have searched github.com/aws/amazon-q-developer-cli/issues and there are no duplicates of my issue
• I have run q doctor in the affected terminal session
• I have run q restart and replicated the issue again

Operating system

macOS 26.2.0 (25C56)

Expected behaviour

If my (and Kiro's own!) understanding of subagents is correct, in the How Subagents Work section of the CLI Subagents doc ( https://kiro.dev/docs/cli/chat/subagents/#how-subagents-work ) should not suggest that subagents can pause to request user approval for certain tool permissions, because I don't think the CLI provides support (or at the very least the UX is really bad) for providing approvals to subagents.

Actual behaviour

When I run a task via a subagent I can see the conversation indicating that the subagent wants approval to do a search but I cannot (via the Kiro/Q CLI interface) provide this approval by entering 'y'. See Steps to repro.

Steps to reproduce

Prompt:

[joshea] > use the default subagent to tell me what the latest breaking news related to Rust-based software development insize Amazon is.

Invoking subagent: kiro_default with query: What is the latest news about Rust-based software development inside Amazon? Search internal resources for recent Rust projects, announcements, or initiatives. (using tool: subagent)
  ┌ ! kiro_default: What is the latest news about Rust-based software developme┐
 →│                                                                            │
  │>  calling tool InternalSearch                                              │
  │                                                                            │
  │                                                                            │
  │>  tool use InternalSearch requires approval, press 'y' to approve and 'n' t│
  │   deny                                                                     │
  │   purpose: Search for Rust programming language in technical documentation │
  │   and wiki                                                                 │
  └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
  Controls: o toggle convo ^+C interrupt

Environment

<This will be visible to anyone. Do not include personal or sensitive information>

[q-details]
version = "1.23.1"
hash = "faddc2c7ee17078025a62a8dfad6543a4154d2fa"
date = "2025-12-23T23:07:20.579821Z (13d ago)"
variant = "full"

[system-info]
os = "macOS 26.2.0 (25C56)"
chip = "Apple M3 Pro"
total-cores = 12
memory = "36.00 GB"

[environment]
cwd = "/Users/USER"
cli-path = "/Users/USER"
os = "Mac"
shell-path = "/bin/zsh"
shell-version = "5.9"
terminal = "iTerm 2"
install-method = "unknown"

[env-vars]
PATH = "/opt/homebrew/opt/node@20/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin:/opt/homebrew/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/System/Cryptexes/App/usr/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/local/bin:/var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/bin:/var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/appleinternal/bin:/opt/pmk/env/global/bin:/usr/local/go/bin:/opt/podman/bin:/Users/USER/.cargo/bin:/Applications/iTerm.app/Contents/Resources/utilities:/Users/USER/.local/bin:/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin:/Users/USER/.toolbox/bin"
QTERM_SESSION_ID = "45817a86fe3a4cb48a7635e8edd2bb6a"
Q_SET_PARENT_CHECK = "1"
Q_TERM = "1.20.1"
SHELL = "/bin/zsh"
TERM = "xterm-256color"
__CFBundleIdentifier = "com.googlecode.iterm2"

[josheaamzn]

Just to clarify, I'm unsure if this is a documentation bug (does the CLI really support interactively providing tool approvals to paused sub-agents?) or if this is a UX (or me) problem...