37 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
37 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
# Subagents
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Subagents are Claude Code's way of running parallel workers. Each one gets its own fresh context window — like assigning a task to a new employee who isn't overloaded with everything else you've been working on.
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The key insight: subagents solve the [[Context Window Management]] problem. Instead of cramming everything into one conversation, you delegate isolated tasks to fresh agents.
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## The Three Types
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1. **Explore agent** — reads files, searches codebase, answers questions about code. Read-only.
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2. **Code agent** — can read AND write files, run commands. Full power.
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3. **Custom agent** — via the Task tool with specific instructions.
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## When to Use Them
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Boris Cherny runs 5 local sessions + 5-10 web sessions in parallel. That's extreme for most people. The practical version:
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- **Research tasks** — send a subagent to explore a codebase or read docs while you keep working
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- **Independent tasks** — two features that don't touch the same files? Parallelize.
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- **Context isolation** — prevent a debugging rabbit hole from polluting your main session
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- **Verbose operations** — code reviews, file analysis, anything that generates a lot of output you don't need to see
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## The Pattern
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Each subagent gets:
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- A clear task description
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- Relevant file paths or search scope
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- Expected output format
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- Its own fresh context window
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The main session stays clean. You get a summary back.
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## Related
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- [[Context Window Management]] — subagents are the #1 tool for managing context
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- [[The Junior Employee Mental Model]] — subagents ARE the junior employees
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- [[Custom Commands]] — you can wrap subagent patterns into reusable commands
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