{
  "title": "Nested subagents",
  "description": "Allow a child agent to delegate further work to another child agent. This is tracked as an independent compatibility claim.",
  "slug": "nested-subagents",
  "locale": "en",
  "seoTitle": "Nested subagents compatibility — Can My Agent Use",
  "socialTitle": "Nested subagents",
  "socialDescription": "Allow a child agent to delegate further work to another child agent. Unreviewed product cells remain unknown.",
  "llmSummary": "Nested subagents is atomic and does not follow automatically from broader subagents support.",
  "audience": "Engineers comparing agent harness capabilities.",
  "contentKind": "feature",
  "status": "published",
  "tags": [
    "runtime",
    "subagents"
  ],
  "updated": "2026-08-28T00:00:00.000Z",
  "published": "2026-08-28T00:00:00.000Z",
  "category": "runtime",
  "summary": "Allow a child agent to delegate further work to another child agent.",
  "specLabel": "Common product term",
  "aliases": [
    "recursive subagents"
  ],
  "capabilityKind": "atomic",
  "parent": "subagents",
  "related": [],
  "relations": [],
  "highlight": false,
  "notes": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "text": "Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Anthropic explicitly states that Claude Code subagents cannot spawn their own subagents and advises against granting the Agent tool to a child."
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "text": "Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Gemini CLI recursion protection prevents subagents from seeing or invoking other agents, including when the all-tools wildcard is granted."
    },
    {
      "id": 3,
      "text": "Evidence checked 2026-08-28: GitHub Copilot CLI supports nested subagents with a default maximum depth of 6 and a configurable maximum of 256 for usage-based billing."
    },
    {
      "id": 4,
      "text": "Evidence checked 2026-08-28: VS Code disables child-to-child delegation by default but supports nested subagents behind `chat.subagents.allowInvocationsFromSubagents`, with a maximum depth of 5."
    }
  ],
  "issues": [],
  "resources": [
    {
      "title": "Methodology",
      "href": "/methodology",
      "kind": "note"
    },
    {
      "id": "anthropic-claude-code-subagents",
      "title": "Anthropic — Create custom subagents",
      "href": "https://code.claude.com/docs/en/sub-agents",
      "kind": "docs",
      "publisher": "Anthropic",
      "evidenceType": "documented",
      "reviewedAt": "2026-08-28",
      "locator": "Subagent limitations"
    },
    {
      "id": "google-gemini-cli-subagents",
      "title": "Google — Gemini CLI subagents",
      "href": "https://geminicli.com/docs/core/subagents/",
      "kind": "docs",
      "publisher": "Google",
      "evidenceType": "documented",
      "reviewedAt": "2026-08-28"
    },
    {
      "id": "github-copilot-cli-reference",
      "title": "GitHub — Copilot CLI command reference",
      "href": "https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/copilot-cli-reference/cli-command-reference",
      "kind": "docs",
      "publisher": "GitHub",
      "evidenceType": "documented",
      "reviewedAt": "2026-08-28"
    },
    {
      "id": "vscode-subagents",
      "title": "Visual Studio Code — Subagents in Visual Studio Code",
      "href": "https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/agents/run/subagents",
      "kind": "docs",
      "publisher": "Microsoft",
      "evidenceType": "documented",
      "reviewedAt": "2026-08-28",
      "locator": "Nested subagents"
    }
  ],
  "support": [
    {
      "harness": "gemini-cli",
      "versions": [
        {
          "track": "current",
          "status": "no",
          "noteIds": [
            2
          ],
          "target": {
            "kind": "dated-documentation",
            "revision": "current Gemini CLI documentation",
            "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
          },
          "environmentProfile": "local-default",
          "qualifiers": [
            {
              "type": "runtime",
              "value": "recursion protection removes other agents from every child tool surface"
            }
          ],
          "evidence": [
            {
              "resourceId": "google-gemini-cli-subagents",
              "type": "documented",
              "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "harness": "copilot-cli",
      "versions": [
        {
          "track": "current",
          "status": "yes",
          "noteIds": [
            3
          ],
          "target": {
            "kind": "dated-documentation",
            "revision": "current GitHub Copilot CLI documentation",
            "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
          },
          "environmentProfile": "local-default",
          "qualifiers": [
            {
              "type": "runtime",
              "value": "default maximum nesting depth is 6; usage-based billing can configure subagents.maxDepth up to 256"
            }
          ],
          "evidence": [
            {
              "resourceId": "github-copilot-cli-reference",
              "type": "documented",
              "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "harness": "claude-cli",
      "versions": [
        {
          "track": "current",
          "status": "no",
          "noteIds": [
            1
          ],
          "target": {
            "kind": "dated-documentation",
            "revision": "current Claude Code subagent documentation",
            "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
          },
          "environmentProfile": "local-default",
          "qualifiers": [
            {
              "type": "runtime",
              "value": "the restriction applies to Claude Code subagents; separate agent-team teammates and independently dispatched sessions use different orchestration models"
            }
          ],
          "evidence": [
            {
              "resourceId": "anthropic-claude-code-subagents",
              "type": "documented",
              "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "harness": "vscode-copilot",
      "versions": [
        {
          "track": "current",
          "status": "yes",
          "noteIds": [
            4
          ],
          "target": {
            "kind": "dated-documentation",
            "revision": "current VS Code subagent documentation",
            "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
          },
          "environmentProfile": "preview-enabled",
          "qualifiers": [
            {
              "type": "feature-flag",
              "value": "requires `chat.subagents.allowInvocationsFromSubagents`; disabled by default"
            },
            {
              "type": "runtime",
              "value": "nesting depth is capped at 5"
            }
          ],
          "evidence": [
            {
              "resourceId": "vscode-subagents",
              "type": "documented",
              "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
            }
          ],
          "stage": "experimental"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "html": "/features/nested-subagents",
  "markdown": "/features/nested-subagents.md",
  "json": "/api/v1/features/nested-subagents.json",
  "body": "Allow a child agent to delegate further work to another child agent.\n\nSupport is recorded only when exact, dated evidence covers this behavior."
}