AI Glossary

Subagent

What does “Subagent” mean?

Subagent: Helper agent started by a main agent to handle one piece of a larger task, usually with a fresh, focused context. It returns a summary rather than its full working history, which keeps the main agent's context uncluttered.

Subagent visual guide: Helper agent started by a main agent to handle one piece of a larger task, usually with a fresh, focused context. It returns a summary rather than its full working history, which keeps the main agent's context uncluttered.
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What is an example of “Subagent”?

A coding agent might launch a subagent to search a large codebase and report back only the five relevant files.

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See also

Multi-agent systemTermOrchestrationTermContext windowTerm

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Tool schemaTermSandboxTermTool useTermReActTermVibe codingTerm