Claude Code Sub Agents: Split Complex Tasks Across Specialized AI

Problem: Complex coding tasks require multiple expert perspectives, but single Claude sessions get overwhelmed trying to be everything at once.

Quick Win: Add this prompt to any complex review task:

Create sub-agents and analyze this from these perspectives:
- Senior engineer: Review architecture decisions
- Security expert: Identify vulnerabilities
- Performance reviewer: Find optimization opportunities

Within minutes, you'll get specialized feedback from three expert viewpoints analyzing in parallel.

Why Single-Agent Analysis Fails

When you ask Claude to review code, optimize performance, and check security simultaneously, you get generic advice. Each perspective competes for attention in the same context window, creating shallow analysis across all domains.

Sub-agents solve this by creating specialized contexts. Each agent focuses on their expertise area using different tools and approaches, then consolidates findings for comprehensive analysis.

How Sub-Agents Work in Claude Code

Claude Code offers two primary ways to leverage sub-agents:

1. Task Tool: Claude Code's built-in tool spawns isolated sub-agents with their own context windows
2. Prompting for Perspectives: Explicitly request analysis from multiple expert viewpoints

The Task tool creates true parallel execution, while perspective prompting simulates specialist thinking within a single session. Both approaches dramatically improve analysis quality.

1. Identify Parallelizable Tasks

Perfect candidates for sub-agents:

• Code review from multiple perspectives
• Research tasks across different technologies
• Documentation review for different audiences
• Performance analysis across different metrics

Non-parallelizable tasks (avoid sub-agents):

• File modifications with dependencies
• Sequential build processes
• Database migrations

2. Design Specialist Roles

Create specific perspectives for your domain. Here are effective prompt patterns:

Code Quality Review:

Analyze this codebase using sub-agents with these specialist roles:
- Factual reviewer: Check technical accuracy against documentation
- Senior engineer: Review architecture decisions and patterns
- Security expert: Identify vulnerabilities and attack vectors
- Consistency reviewer: Check coding standards compliance
- Redundancy checker: Find duplicate logic to consolidate

User Experience Analysis:

Create sub-agents for UX review of this feature:
- Creative thinker: Suggest innovative interaction solutions
- Beginner user: Test ease of use and onboarding friction
- Designer: Evaluate visual hierarchy and spacing
- Marketing analyst: Assess conversion potential
- Accessibility auditor: Check WCAG compliance

3. Orchestrate Analysis

Each sub-agent naturally selects appropriate tools for their domain. Security experts gravitate toward vulnerability scanners, performance reviewers use profiling tools, and architects focus on structural analysis.

This creates comprehensive coverage you can't achieve with single-agent analysis.

Implementation Strategies

Use Plan Mode for Safe Analysis

Before launching sub-agents on critical code, enter plan mode by pressing Shift+Tab twice in Claude Code. This ensures sub-agents analyze without making destructive changes.

In plan mode, prompt for multi-perspective analysis:

Use sub-agents to validate this API design from:
- Backend perspective: Data flow and scalability
- Frontend perspective: Consumption patterns and DX
- Security perspective: Authentication and authorization gaps

Plan mode is especially valuable when sub-agents might otherwise attempt automatic fixes.

The Consolidation Pattern

After sub-agents complete their analysis, consolidate findings:

1. Individual Reports: Each agent documents their findings
2. Conflict Resolution: Address contradictory recommendations
3. Priority Ranking: Order suggestions by impact
4. Action Plan: Create step-by-step implementation

Common Error Patterns

Mistake: Using sub-agents for simple tasks

Don't spawn sub-agents for trivial fixes like typos or single-line changes. The overhead eliminates any benefit.

Better: Reserve sub-agents for complex, multi-faceted problems:

Use sub-agents to redesign this authentication system:
- Security expert: Audit current vulnerabilities
- UX designer: Simplify the login flow
- Performance engineer: Optimize token handling

Mistake: Creating too many overlapping roles

Avoid redundant perspectives like "security expert, penetration tester, vulnerability scanner, security architect" - these overlap significantly.

Better: Choose distinct, complementary perspectives that cover different dimensions of the problem.

Background Execution: Async Sub-Agents

When Claude Code spawns sub-agents, you can now background them and continue working. Press Ctrl+B while a sub-agent runs:

You: Audit our authentication module for security issues
Claude: I'll spawn a sub-agent to analyze the auth module...
[Sub-agent starts]
You: [Press Ctrl+B]
You: While that runs, let's optimize the database queries...

Monitor background agents with /tasks. When the sub-agent completes, it wakes up the main agent with results.

This transforms sub-agents from blocking operations into true parallel workflows. For the complete async workflow guide, see Background Agents & Parallel Execution.

Performance Optimization

Sub-agents maximize Claude Sonnet's capabilities without upgrading to expensive Opus pricing. Parallel analysis delivers Opus-level insights at Sonnet costs.

Key cost benefits:

• Multiple expert perspectives in single session
• Parallel processing reduces total time
• Specialized context prevents shallow analysis
• Better results than single expensive model
• Background execution eliminates waiting

Advanced Orchestration Patterns

Role Rotation Strategy

For large projects, rotate sub-agent perspectives across different components:

Week 1 - Core Architecture:

Analyze the database design using sub-agents:
- Data architect: Schema optimization and normalization
- Security expert: Access control and encryption
- Performance optimizer: Query patterns and indexing

Week 2 - API Layer:

Review API endpoints with these specialist sub-agents:
- Backend engineer: Implementation quality and patterns
- Documentation writer: API clarity and examples
- Integration specialist: Third-party compatibility

Iterative Refinement

Use sub-agents for progressive improvement:

1. Initial analysis with broad perspectives
2. Deep dive with specialist roles
3. Final review with user-focused roles

This creates comprehensive, user-centered solutions that single agents miss.

When Sub-Agents Excel

Sub-agents deliver maximum value for:

• Architecture Reviews: Multiple technical perspectives
• Documentation Audits: Different audience viewpoints
• Code Quality Gates: Various quality dimensions
• Product Strategy: Cross-functional insights
• Competitive Analysis: Different market angles

Start with code reviews, then expand to strategic planning as you develop an "itch for parallelism."

Next Steps

Master sub-agent orchestration with these resources:

• Foundation: Start with Agent Fundamentals to understand the basics
• Implementation: Practice with Custom Agents for specialized scenarios
• Coordination: Learn Task Distribution for complex project management
• Optimization: Explore Planning Modes for safe sub-agent execution
• Context Management: Master Context Preservation to maintain quality across agents

Try sub-agents on your next code review. You'll immediately notice the difference specialist perspectives make.