I built this tool https://github.com/btree1970/variant-ui where you can use a sub-agent to spin up multiple branches with different code changes into the UI and compare them side by side in the browser.
How to use Claude Code subagents to parallelize development
81–90 of 131 posts
Re: How to use Claude Code subagents to parallelize development
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes I know, but subagent suffer from context amnesia during context handouts which is why this subagent use is flawed for purpose of coding product features. I've been using these tools a lot and installed every ai agent out there i could find.
Yup, this is the killer. Subagents SEEM good when you use them on greenfield projects, you can grind out a whole first pass without burning through much of your main context, it seems magical. But when you have a complex project that handoff is the kiss of death.
So maybe the solution is to make all subproblems greenfield products?
By this I mean treat features as isolated plugins. I get that there are cross-cutting features that touch multiple pieces of functionality, and those probably need special treatment, but a large class of functionality can be developed in an isolated way with a common set of design tokens and APIs to tie them all together.
This might play better to coding agent strengths.
Full disclosure: this is very much an armchair view. I have all of 2 weeks of experience coding via agents (vs manually), but this thread is nerd sniping me into trying it myself.
Re: How to use Claude Code subagents to parallelize development
#83I am sceptical if these persona based agents really make that much of a difference, and more "appear" to make a difference because of their talk style. Underneath is just a system prompt, or more likely a prompt layered on top "You are a frontend engineer, competent in react and Next.js, tailwind-css" - the stack details and project layout, key information is already in the CLAUDE.md. For more stuff the model is goin…
Agreed, the roles seem more cerenonial than anything else.
Re: How to use Claude Code subagents to parallelize development
#84I am sceptical if these persona based agents really make that much of a difference, and more "appear" to make a difference because of their talk style. Underneath is just a system prompt, or more likely a prompt layered on top "You are a frontend engineer, competent in react and Next.js, tailwind-css" - the stack details and project layout, key information is already in the CLAUDE.md. For more stuff the model is goin…
You don't need subagent, I shared this on ClaudeCode sub as well https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/s/barbpBxG78 Subagents do not work well for coding at all
> Subagents do not work well for coding at all
Subagents can work very well, especially for larger projects. Based on this statement, I think you're experiencing how I felt in my early experience with them, and that your mental model for how to use them effectively is still embryonic.
I've found that the primary benefit for subagents is context/focus management. For example, I'm doing auth using Stytch. What I absolutely don't want to do is load https://stytch.com/docs/llms.txt and instructions for leveraging it in my CLAUDE.md. But it's perfect for my auth agent, and the quality of the output for auth-related tasks is far higher as a result.
A recommended read: https://jxnl.co/writing/2025/08/29/context-engineering-slash...
Re: How to use Claude Code subagents to parallelize development
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup, this is the killer. Subagents SEEM good when you use them on greenfield projects, you can grind out a whole first pass without burning through much of your main context, it seems magical. But when you have a complex project that handoff is the kiss of death.
So maybe the solution is to make all subproblems greenfield products? By this I mean treat features as isolated plugins. I get that there are cross-cutting features that touch multiple pieces of functionality, and those probably need special treatment, but a large class of functionality can be developed in an isolated way with a common set of design tokens and APIs to tie them all together. This might play better to…
I do try to do this, from an architectural standpoint it starts with modular monoliths to avoid coupling, then I try to decompose problems in a way that is very sandboxed so the blast radius of an agent going of the rails is contained.
Re: How to use Claude Code subagents to parallelize development
#86One can hardly control one coding agent for correctness, let alone multiple ones... It's cool, but not very reliable or useful.
> One can hardly control one coding agent for correctness Why not? I'm assuming we're not talking about "vibe coding" as it's not a serious workflow, it was suggested as a joke basically, and we're talking about working together with LLMs. Why would correctness be any harder to achieve than programming without them?
Because they output so much code. It's a wall.
Using a coding agent can make your entire work day turn into doing nothing but code reviews. I.e. the least fun part: constant review of a junior dev that's on the brink of failing their probation period with random strokes of genius.
Re: How to use Claude Code subagents to parallelize development
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was my understanding that the subagents have the same system prompt. How do you know that they don’t follow CLAUDE.md directions? I’ve been using subagents since they were introduced and it has been a great way to manage context size / pollution.
A few youtubers have done deep dives on this, monitoring claude traffic through a proxy. Subagents don't get the system prompt or anything else, they get their subagent prompt and whatever handoff the main agent gives them. I was on the subagent hype train myself for a while but as my codebases have scaled (I have a couple of codebases up to almost 400k now) subagents have become a lot more error prone and now I crin…
I have a bunch of homegrown CLI tools in my $PATH that are only described in the CLAUDE.md file. My subagents use these tools perfectly as if they have full instructions on their use but no such instructions are in the subagent prompts.
This should not be possible if they don't have CLAUDE.md in their context.
My main agent prompt always has a complete ban on the main agent doing any work themselves. All work is done by subagents which they coordinate.
I've been doing this for 2-3 months now on projects upwards of 200k lines and the results have been incredible.
I'm very confused how so many of us can have such completely different experiences with these tools.
Re: How to use Claude Code subagents to parallelize development
#88as much as ai has been a boon to my own development i writhe at the thought of middle managers oversold on the promise of ai and its output, making unrealistic requests and demanding 'MORE PRODUCTIVITY' at the greater cost of making more work in the future. Diluting code-as-craft, and commodifying it down to shovels of coal into the furnace.
Re: How to use Claude Code subagents to parallelize development
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Their ability to refactor a codebase goes in the toilet pretty quickly. Very much this. I tried to get Claude to move some code from one file to another. Some of the code went missing . Some of it was modified along the way. Humans have strategies for refactoring, e.g. "I'm going to start from the top of the file and Cut code that needs to be moved and Paste it in the new location". LLM don't have a clipboard (yet!…
Remember 20 years ago when Eclipse could move a function by manipulating the AST and following references to adjust imports and callers, and it it didn't lose any code?
It’s still early days for these agents. There isn’t any reason the agents won’t build or understand AST in the future to more quickly refactor.
Re: How to use Claude Code subagents to parallelize development
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't need subagent, I shared this on ClaudeCode sub as well https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/s/barbpBxG78 Subagents do not work well for coding at all
> Subagents do not work well for coding at all Subagents can work very well, especially for larger projects. Based on this statement, I think you're experiencing how I felt in my early experience with them, and that your mental model for how to use them effectively is still embryonic. I've found that the primary benefit for subagents is context/focus management. For example, I'm doing auth using Stytch. What I absolu…
> your mental model for how to use them effectively is still embryonic.
Well