diff --git a/src/modules/shellthread-999999.0a1.0.tm b/src/modules/shellthread-999999.0a1.0.tm
index b91780b4..e9cdaf08 100644
--- a/src/modules/shellthread-999999.0a1.0.tm
+++ b/src/modules/shellthread-999999.0a1.0.tm
@@ -494,6 +494,11 @@ namespace eval shellthread::manager {
                     dict lappend winfo list_client_tids $tidclient
                     dict set workers $sourcetag $winfo  ;#writeback
                     return [dict get $winfo tid]
+                } elseif {$existing_settings eq {-raw 0 - file {} -syslog {} -direction out}} {
+                    #review - magic dict is default - shouldn't hard code here.
+                    dict lappend winfo list_client_tids $tidclient
+                    dict set workers $sourcetag $winfo  ;#writeback
+                    return [dict get $winfo tid]
                 } else {
                     set emsg    "shellthread::manager::new_worker error: tag $sourcetag already has a worker with a different configuration\n"
                     append emsg "existing: $existing_settings\n"
@@ -655,7 +660,7 @@ namespace eval shellthread::manager {
     proc unsubscribe {sourcetaglist} {
         variable workers
         #workers structure example:
-        #[list sourcetag1 [list tid <tidworker> list_client_tids <clients>] ts_start <ts_start> ts_end_list {}]
+        #[list sourcetag1 [list tid <tidworker> list_client_tids <clients> ts_start <ts_start> ts_end_list {} workertype message|pipe]]
         variable free_threads
         set mytid [thread::id] ;#caller of shellthread::manager::xxx is the client thread