Sub-Agent Context Isolation Property
- Entity ID:
ent-20260419-84e67e5aa21b - Type:
concept - Scope:
shared - Status:
active - Aliases: fresh sub-agent property, isolation eliminates drift
Description
Architectural property of Claude Code's sub-agent spawning: each sub-agent receives no conversational context from the parent except the prompt. This eliminates context drift — a main agent in a long discussion tends to sycophantically agree with the accumulated framing; fresh sub-agents give uncontaminated responses to the same question. The enabling property behind the parallel-perspectives design pattern.
Key claims
- Sub-agent isolation eliminates context drift
- Claude Code uses orchestrator-workers pattern for subagents while keeping the main loop reactive
- Subagent sessions cost approximately 7x the tokens of a standard session
- Subagents return summaries only, not full histories
Relations
- Sub-Agents as Parallel Design Perspectives Pattern --[depends_on]--> Sub-Agent Context Isolation Property
- Summary-Only Subagent Return Model --[implements]--> Sub-Agent Context Isolation Property
- OpenClaw Multi-Agent Routing --[contrasts_with]--> Sub-Agent Context Isolation Property
- Isolated Subagent Boundaries (Principle) --[instantiated_by]--> Sub-Agent Context Isolation Property