Sub-Agents Reference

Create specialized AI agents with isolated contexts for specific tasks.

When to Use

• "How do I create a sub-agent?"

• "Configure agent tools"

• "What built-in agents exist?"

• "Agent model selection"

• "Agent chaining patterns"

Quick Start

Interactive (Recommended)

/agents

Opens menu to create, edit, and manage agents.

Manual Creation

mkdir -p .claude/agents

cat > .claude/agents/reviewer.md << 'EOF'

---

name: reviewer

description: Code review specialist. Use proactively after code changes.

tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash

model: sonnet

---

You are a senior code reviewer focusing on quality and security.

## Review Checklist

- Code clarity and naming

- Error handling

- Security vulnerabilities

- Test coverage

EOF

CLI-Based

claude --agents '{

  "reviewer": {

    "description": "Code reviewer",

    "prompt": "Review for quality and security",

    "tools": ["Read", "Bash"],

    "model": "sonnet"

  }

}'

Agent File Format

---

name: agent-name

description: When/why to use this agent

tools: Read, Edit, Bash      # Optional, inherits all if omitted

model: sonnet                 # sonnet, haiku, claude-opus-4-5-20251101, inherit

---

System prompt content here...

Configuration Fields

Field

Required

Options

name

Yes

lowercase, hyphens

description

Yes

When to use

tools

No

Tool list (inherits all if omitted)

model

No

sonnet, haiku, claude-opus-4-5-20251101, inherit

Built-In Agents

Agent

Model

Tools

Purpose

General-purpose

Sonnet

All

Complex multi-step tasks

Plan

Sonnet

Read-only

Plan mode research

Explore

Haiku

Read-only

Fast codebase search

Model Selection

Model

Speed

Best For

Haiku

Fastest

Search, quick lookups

Sonnet

Fast

Most tasks (default)

Opus

Slower

Complex reasoning

Tool Combinations

# Code Reviewer (read-only)

tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash

# Debugger

tools: Read, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob

# Implementer

tools: Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob

Example Agents

Code Reviewer

---

name: code-reviewer

description: Reviews code for quality and security. Use after code changes.

tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash

model: sonnet

---

Review code for:

- Security vulnerabilities

- Code quality issues

- Missing error handling

- Test coverage gaps

Output findings by priority: Critical > Warning > Suggestion

Debugger

---

name: debugger

description: Debug errors and test failures.

tools: Read, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob

model: inherit

---

Debugging process:

1. Capture error details

2. Identify failure location

3. Form hypotheses

4. Test and verify

5. Implement fix

File Locations

Type

Location

Priority

Project

.claude/agents/

Highest

User

~/.claude/agents/

Lower

Advanced Patterns

Resumable Agents

[Agent returns agentId: "abc123"]

# Later: resume with context

claude -r "abc123" "Continue analysis"

Agent Chaining

Use code-analyzer to find issues,

then use optimizer to fix them

Best Practices

• Single responsibility - One clear purpose per agent

• Restrict tools - Only grant what's needed

• Clear descriptions - Action-oriented, include "proactively"

• Version control - Check .claude/agents/ into git