org-agenda not displaying subtasks in day/week/month-agenda

[opoppie234]

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What is your question?

In org-agenda, I want to display subtasks underneath parent blocked tasks in org-agenda. This is so I can keep track of subtasks in addition to main ones. I am currently in the process of configuring org-agenda to automatically change the state of TODO headings depending on the completion status of children tasks, but this is more pressing to me.
An example agenda file block:

"health-routine.org"
#+CATEGORY: Health
* STRT [#A] Workout [%] 
SCHEDULED: <DATE HERE> DEADLINE: <DATE HERE>
   ** TODO Abdominal exercises [/]
        - [X] Curl ups
        - [ ] Planks
   ** TODO etc etc...

My goal is for org-agena to show (pretend the NOTE parenthesis arent there, I am using them to indicate the task is being marked as blocked:)

Friday 8 May 2026
    Health:               DEADLINE: STRT [#B] Workout [0%] (NOTE: Marked as blocked by agenda)
        Health:               DEADLINE: TODO Abdominal exercises [1/2]
        Health:               DEADLINE: TODO Etc etc...
    Work:                 DEADLINE: STRT [#A] Overdue Regression fix [0%] (NOTE: Marked as blocked by agenda)
        Work:                 DEADLINE: TODO Document problem [0/4]

However, I only see:

Friday 8 May 2026
    Health:               DEADLINE: STRT [#B] Workout [0%] (NOTE: Marked as blocked by agenda)
    Work:                 DEADLINE: STRT [#A] Overdue Regression fix [0%] (NOTE: Marked as blocked by agenda)

As I understand, setting "org-agenda-list-sublevels t" should have forced this to work, regardless of any other variable settings.
config.el:

(after! org-agenda
 (setq org-agenda-list-sublevels t))

However, this does not work, and only the block parent task shows in the agenda buffer. What am I doing wrong, and is there a better way to accomplish this?

While I'm at it, what would the best method to automatically change the TODO heading depending on the completion of subtasks/checkboxes be?

I should note that I did see the code block for automatically changing TODO status when children are done on the orgmode documentation, but I am not sure if that works with Doom Emacs, considering it already changes so much.

System information

https://pastebin.com/Nhnv4G3K

[hlissner]

As I understand, setting "org-agenda-list-sublevels t" should have forced this to work, regardless of any other variable settings.

It's org-agenda-todo-list-sublevels, not org-agenda-list-sublevels.

;;; add to $DOOMDIR/config.el

(after! org-agenda
  (setq org-agenda-todo-list-sublevels t))

what would the best method to automatically change the TODO heading depending on the completion of subtasks/checkboxes be?

Something like

(defun auto-complete-entry-if-children-are-done-h (_done not-done)
  (let (org-log-done org-log-states)
    (org-todo (if (zerop not-done) "DONE" "TODO"))))

(add-hook 'org-after-todo-statistics-hook #'auto-complete-entry-if-children-are-done-h)

(adapted from this)

I should note that I did see the code block for automatically changing TODO status when children are done on the orgmode documentation, but I am not sure if that works with Doom Emacs, considering it already changes so much.

What happened when you tried it?

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