Sub-agents
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Sub-agents are specialized AI agent instances spawned to handle discrete subtasks within a larger multi-agent architecture, operating under the coordination of a parent orchestrator or Hive Mode system.
Role in Multi-Agent Architectures
In practice, sub-agents are instantiated to divide complex, ongoing work into parallel or sequential workstreams. As described in the context of building persistent agent systems, the pattern involves constructing "an agent swarm, an agent hive, of agent an agent team around each of these individual little subtasks" — with each sub-agent focused on a narrow portion of the overall problem. To Give an Agent a Workspace: Laying a Foundation for Messy Forever Work, 1:00:07
Relationship to Orchestrators
Sub-agents are a constituent component of Hive Mode, where a main orchestrator coordinates multiple parallel workstreams by delegating to them. The orchestrator maintains awareness of the broader task while sub-agents execute focused units of work: "we kind of have like these different work streams that the like the main so this is the main orchestrator." To Give an Agent a Workspace: Laying a Foundation for Messy Forever Work, 1:01:35
This hierarchical decomposition — orchestrator directing sub-agents — is a foundational pattern for handling "messy forever work": long-running, open-ended tasks that resist being addressed by a single monolithic agent.