diff --git a/packages/core/src/tool/subagent.ts b/packages/core/src/tool/subagent.ts
index 84131b18a6eb..b8c0975cdc50 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/tool/subagent.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/tool/subagent.ts
@@ -69,8 +69,18 @@ export const Plugin = {
       state: "completed" | "error" | "cancelled",
       text: string,
     ) {
+      // TUI synthetic rows require a non-empty description to render in the parent transcript.
+      // Keep the structured XML body in text for model consumption; surface a short human label
+      // so background completions and failures remain visible without a follow-up model turn.
+      const label =
+        state === "error"
+          ? `Background subagent failed: ${description}`
+          : state === "cancelled"
+            ? `Background subagent cancelled: ${description}`
+            : `Background subagent completed: ${description}`
       yield* runtime.session.synthetic({
         sessionID: parentID,
+        description: label,
         text: `<subagent id="${childID}" state="${state}" description="${description}">\n${text}\n</subagent>`,
       })
     })
diff --git a/packages/core/test/tool-subagent.test.ts b/packages/core/test/tool-subagent.test.ts
index 56e3587162d6..b0cd70e62684 100644
--- a/packages/core/test/tool-subagent.test.ts
+++ b/packages/core/test/tool-subagent.test.ts
@@ -289,6 +289,7 @@ describe("SubagentTool", () => {
           yield* SessionPending.promoteSteers(database.db, events, parent.id)
           const synthetic = (yield* sessions.context(parent.id)).filter((message) => message.type === "synthetic")
           expect(synthetic).toHaveLength(1)
+          expect(synthetic[0]?.description).toBe("Background subagent completed: background review")
           expect(synthetic[0]?.text).toContain(`<subagent id="${childID}" state="completed"`)
           expect(synthetic[0]?.text).toContain(childText)
         }),