---
title: "Subagent context"
canonical: "https://canmyagentuse.com/features/subagent-context-isolation"
contentKind: "feature"
locale: "en"
description: "Define which conversation, instructions, files, memory, and tools a child agent receives."
llmSummary: "Subagent context describes what a child receives from its parent. Fresh context, copied history, selected files, shared memory, and task-only context are recorded as distinct qualifiers."
publishedAt: "2026-08-28T00:00:00.000Z"
updatedAt: "2026-08-28T00:00:00.000Z"
verifiedAt: "2026-08-28"
tags: ["runtime","subagents","context","isolation","security"]
---

# Subagent context

Subagent context describes what a child receives from its parent. Fresh context, copied history, selected files, shared memory, and task-only context are recorded as distinct qualifiers.

- HTML: https://canmyagentuse.com/features/subagent-context-isolation
- JSON: https://canmyagentuse.com/api/v1/features/subagent-context-isolation.json
- Markdown: https://canmyagentuse.com/features/subagent-context-isolation.md

Terminology basis: **Common product term** — https://code.claude.com/docs/en/sub-agents.

## Current support at a glance

Subagent context: 5 supported, 0 partial, 0 unsupported, 26 unreviewed across 31 cataloged products.

- Reviewed current products: 5 of 31
- Supported: 5
- Partial: 0
- Unsupported: 0
- Unreviewed: 26
- Not applicable: 0

Unknown or unreviewed means insufficient published evidence; it does not mean unsupported.

This row asks whether the child-agent boundary has documented context semantics. A child may start fresh, receive the full parent transcript, inherit only a task prompt and selected files, share project memory, or receive a compacted summary. Those modes have different correctness, privacy, and token-cost consequences.

Evidence should record inherited system and project instructions, conversation turns, tool schemas, environment variables, files, long-term memory, credentials, approval state, and context budget. It should also say whether later parent changes propagate and whether the operator can inspect the exact handoff.

## Catalog context

- Category: [runtime](/categories/runtime.md)
- Terminology basis: Common product term
- Aliases: child context, subagent isolation, context inheritance
- Family: [Subagents](/features/subagents.md)
- Siblings: [Concurrent subagents](/features/subagent-concurrency.md), [Nested subagents](/features/nested-subagents.md), [Per-subagent model selection](/features/subagent-model-selection.md), [Subagent delegation](/features/subagent-delegation.md), [Subagent management](/features/subagent-lifecycle-controls.md), [Subagent MCP access](/features/subagent-mcp-access.md), [Subagent permissions](/features/subagent-approval-boundaries.md), [Subagent results](/features/subagent-result-handoff.md), [Subagent write access](/features/subagent-write-access.md)

## Compatibility assertions

Unknown means insufficient published evidence; it does not mean unsupported.

### ChatGPT (web)

- Harness: [ChatGPT](/harnesses/chatgpt-web.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Claude (web)

- Harness: [Claude](/harnesses/claude-web.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Gemini (web)

- Harness: [Gemini](/harnesses/gemini-web.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Copilot (web)

- Harness: [Copilot](/harnesses/copilot-web.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Grok (web)

- Harness: [Grok](/harnesses/grok-web.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Grok Bot (desktop)

- Harness: [Grok Bot](/harnesses/grok-bot-desktop.md)
- current: **Unknown**

### Perplexity (web)

- Harness: [Perplexity](/harnesses/perplexity-web.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Le Chat (web)

- Harness: [Le Chat](/harnesses/le-chat.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Devin (web)

- Harness: [Devin](/harnesses/devin-web.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Replit Agent (web)

- Harness: [Replit Agent](/harnesses/replit-agent.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### ChatGPT (desktop)

- Harness: [ChatGPT](/harnesses/chatgpt-desktop.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Claude (desktop)

- Harness: [Claude](/harnesses/claude-desktop.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Cursor (desktop)

- Harness: [Cursor](/harnesses/cursor.md)
- current: **Supported**
  - Target: dated-documentation — current Cursor subagent documentation; observed 2026-08-28
  - Environment: local-default
  - Constraint (runtime): clean child context receives a parent-composed task prompt; project files share the checkout by default but can be isolated in a worktree, branch, or cloud VM
  - Evidence: [Cursor — Subagents](https://cursor.com/docs/subagents) — documented; observed 2026-08-28
  - Qualification note 3: Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Cursor subagents start with clean context, do not receive prior parent history, receive relevant information through the delegation prompt, and may use isolated project copies.
- preview: **Unknown**

### OpenWork Desktop (desktop)

- Harness: [OpenWork Desktop](/harnesses/openwork-desktop.md)
- current: **Unknown**

### Copilot Chat (desktop)

- Harness: [Copilot Chat](/harnesses/vscode-copilot.md)
- current: **Supported**
  - Target: dated-documentation — current VS Code agent-concepts documentation; observed 2026-08-28
  - Environment: local-default
  - Constraint (runtime): the model context is isolated; project files and tools remain available according to the child agent configuration
  - Evidence: [Visual Studio Code — Agents concepts](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/agents/concepts/agents) — documented; observed 2026-08-28
  - Qualification note 5: Evidence checked 2026-08-28: VS Code documents a separate context window that excludes the parent conversation history and receives the child task, applicable instructions, and current agent configuration.
- preview: **Unknown**

### Chrome WebMCP origin trial (desktop)

- Harness: [Chrome WebMCP origin trial](/harnesses/chrome-webmcp-preview.md)
- current: **Unknown**

### Windsurf (desktop)

- Harness: [Windsurf](/harnesses/windsurf.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Zed Agent (desktop)

- Harness: [Zed Agent](/harnesses/zed-agent.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Continue (desktop)

- Harness: [Continue](/harnesses/continue.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Cline (desktop)

- Harness: [Cline](/harnesses/cline.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### JetBrains AI (desktop)

- Harness: [JetBrains AI](/harnesses/jetbrains-ai.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Warp (desktop)

- Harness: [Warp](/harnesses/warp.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Claude CLI (cli)

- Harness: [Claude CLI](/harnesses/claude-cli.md)
- current: **Supported**
  - Target: dated-documentation — current Claude Code subagent documentation; observed 2026-08-28
  - Environment: local-default
  - Constraint (runtime): the child has a separate model context but normally shares the parent process's project files and environment unless worktree isolation is configured
  - Evidence: [Anthropic — Create custom subagents](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/sub-agents) — documented; observed 2026-08-28
  - Qualification note 1: Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Claude Code runs each subagent in its own context window with a custom system prompt and tool set; the child receives its task rather than the parent conversation history and returns a summary.
- preview: **Unknown**

### ChatGPT CLI (cli)

- Harness: [ChatGPT CLI](/harnesses/chatgpt-cli.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Codex CLI (cli)

- Harness: [Codex CLI](/harnesses/codex-cli.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### OpenCode (cli)

- Harness: [OpenCode](/harnesses/opencode.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Gemini CLI (cli)

- Harness: [Gemini CLI](/harnesses/gemini-cli.md)
- current: **Supported**
  - Target: dated-documentation — current Gemini CLI documentation; observed 2026-08-28
  - Environment: local-default
  - Constraint (runtime): a child has independent history and only explicitly granted tools; it cannot invoke another subagent even when granted the all-tools wildcard
  - Evidence: [Google — Gemini CLI subagents](https://geminicli.com/docs/core/subagents/) — documented; observed 2026-08-28
  - Qualification note 2: Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Gemini CLI subagents use an independent context loop, independent history, explicit tool sets, and recursion protection.
- preview: **Unknown**

### Aider (cli)

- Harness: [Aider](/harnesses/aider.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Goose (cli)

- Harness: [Goose](/harnesses/goose.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**

### Copilot CLI (cli)

- Harness: [Copilot CLI](/harnesses/copilot-cli.md)
- current: **Supported**
  - Target: dated-documentation — current GitHub Copilot CLI documentation; observed 2026-08-28
  - Environment: local-default
  - Constraint (runtime): each subagent receives its own context window; exact inheritance of credentials, instructions, files, and later parent changes remains separately qualified
  - Evidence: [GitHub — Creating custom agents for Copilot CLI](https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/copilot-cli/customize-copilot/create-custom-agents-for-cli) — documented; observed 2026-08-28
  - Qualification note 4: Evidence checked 2026-08-28: GitHub Copilot CLI describes subagents as separate-context workers, allowing offloaded information to stay outside the main context window.
- preview: **Unknown**

### Amp (cli)

- Harness: [Amp](/harnesses/amp-cli.md)
- current: **Unknown**
- preview: **Unknown**