AI Glossary

Subagent

An AI agent that another agent starts to handle one part of a task. In some tools, such as Claude Code, each subagent works in its own context window and returns its result to the agent that started it.

See also

  • Multi-agent system

    A system in which several AI agents act together, each with its own role, instructions or tools.

  • Orchestration

    Coordinating several models, agents or tools so they work as one system: deciding who does which step, in what order, and what gets passed between them.

  • Context engineering

    Deciding what goes into a model's context window at each step (instructions, files, tool results, memory) so an agent has what it needs and nothing that distracts it.

Source: Claude Code documentation, Subagents (opens in a new tab)

Cite this term.

CC BY 4.0, attribution required.

This term

Orbyt Labs, Subagent (AI Glossary), Oct 18, 2026. https://www.orbytlabs.ai/orbyt-collective/glossary/subagent

The dataset (JSON)

Orbyt Labs Glossaries (Oct 19, 2026), https://www.orbytlabs.ai/glossary#dataset

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