Delegate noisy investigation to a subagent

The problem

Exploration dumps huge tool outputs into your primary session and leaves no room for clean implementation.

The hack

Ask Claude to "spin up a subagent to investigate X and return only a summary," then implement from that brief.

Why it works

Subagents get a fresh context window. Intermediate reads stay there; the parent only receives the synthesized result.

Setup

1. Identify work that produces lots of intermediate output (search, compare repos, verify against a spec). 2. Prompt: "Spin up a subagent to find where auth tokens are validated and return the key files + flow." 3. Keep implementation in the parent session. 4. Use `/tasks` if you need to inspect background subagent status.

Prompt

Spin up a subagent to investigate where authentication tokens are validated. Return only key files, the call flow, and risks—no raw dumps.

Additional details

Source