Introduction to subagents
by Anthropic
A four-lesson Anthropic course on delegating Claude Code work to subagents with their own context windows
Overview
Introduction to subagents is a free course in Anthropic's online academy, served at academy.claude.com and anthropic.skilljar.com. It is short: four lessons that Anthropic estimates at 45 minutes, delivered as videos with supporting text in the learning management system. Lesson 1, What are subagents?, explains what happens when Claude Code spins up a separate context window, how the task description flows in and how a summary comes back to the main conversation. Lesson 2, Creating a subagent, walks through the /agents command for defining custom subagents for workflows such as code review and documentation generation. Lesson 3, Designing effective subagents, covers the patterns that make them dependable: structured output formats, having the subagent report the obstacles it hits, and limiting which tools it can use. Lesson 4, Using subagents effectively, is about judgment: when delegating a task keeps the main context clean and which pitfalls to avoid. The course page frames the goal as decomposing complex tasks across parallel Claude subagents and orchestrating them deterministically. David Gewirtz, reviewing Anthropic's free courses in an article updated May 13, 2026, finished this one in about 20 minutes and found it worthwhile, though he noted it does not cover managing subagents while they run or fixing ones that get stuck. It fits a developer who already uses Claude Code day to day and has started hitting context limits in long sessions.
At a Glance
- Topic
- Agentic
- Level
- Beginner
- Format
- Course
- Cost
- Free
- Duration
- ~20-45 minutes, 4 lessons (Anthropic lists 45 min; one reviewer finished in 20)
- Provider
- Anthropic
- Hands-on
- Yes — code/exercises
- Certificate
- Available
What You’ll Learn
- ✓How Claude Code runs a subagent in a separate context window
- ✓How task inputs flow into a subagent and how its summary returns
- ✓Creating custom subagents with the /agents command in Claude Code
- ✓Building code-review and documentation subagents tailored to your own workflow
- ✓Making subagents dependable with structured output formats and obstacle reporting
- ✓Restricting a subagent's tool access so it stays scoped to its task
- ✓Deciding when delegating to a subagent helps and which pitfalls to avoid
Highlights
- •Free, with a completion certificate, from the company that builds Claude Code
- •Short enough for one sitting: four lessons, 20 to 45 minutes depending on the source
- •Lesson 3 gives concrete reliability patterns: structured outputs, obstacle reporting and tool restrictions
- •An independent review (David Gewirtz, May 2026) rated it worthwhile but flagged that it skips monitoring running subagents and unsticking stuck ones
Who It’s For
Best For
- ✓Developers who use Claude Code daily and run long sessions
- ✓Engineers designing delegation patterns for coding agents
- ✓Teams standardizing custom subagents for code review or documentation
Prerequisites
- •Claude Code installed and some hands-on experience using it
- •Basic familiarity with what an LLM context window is
FAQ
What is Introduction to subagents?
A free, four-lesson course from Anthropic on Claude Code subagents, the isolated assistants that run a task in their own context window and hand back a summary. It is for developers already using Claude Code who want long sessions to stay focused and who want to build custom subagents for jobs such as code review or documentation.
Is Introduction to subagents free?
Introduction to subagents is free to access.
What level is Introduction to subagents for?
Introduction to subagents is aimed at a beginner audience. Recommended background: Claude Code installed and some hands-on experience using it, Basic familiarity with what an LLM context window is.
How long does Introduction to subagents take?
Expect roughly ~20-45 minutes, 4 lessons (Anthropic lists 45 min; one reviewer finished in 20). Most learners work through it at their own pace.
What will I learn from Introduction to subagents?
You'll learn: How Claude Code runs a subagent in a separate context window; How task inputs flow into a subagent and how its summary returns; Creating custom subagents with the /agents command in Claude Code; Building code-review and documentation subagents tailored to your own workflow; Making subagents dependable with structured output formats and obstacle reporting; Restricting a subagent's tool access so it stays scoped to its task; Deciding when delegating to a subagent helps and which pitfalls to avoid.
Topics
Sources
This page was written from 3 sources, 2 on domains other than academy.claude.com.