Dictionary term
Subagent
Agentic AIIntermediate
A secondary agent invoked by a primary agent to handle a focused subtask, often with its own tools and isolated context, returning results to the caller.
In plain English
A helper AI that the main AI sends off to do one focused job with its own clean workspace, and that reports back only the result.
Analogy
Like delegating a specific task to a junior teammate who reports the result back to you.
Why it matters
Subagents keep each task's context clean and let you build modular automations instead of one tangled agent.
In practice
A main agent spawning a research subagent to gather facts, then continuing with the summary itself.
Related terms
Sources
Browse all terms →Last verified