# Subagents and parallel work

## Give each worker a bounded task

The native agent can delegate independent work to child agents. A good task names the
objective, files in scope, constraints, and the evidence expected back.

> Ask a research worker to locate the authentication flow while you review the tests.
> Do not let either task edit files yet.

Child agents do not automatically receive the entire parent conversation. Their
instructions need enough context to stand on their own.

## Work and research profiles

**Work** children inherit enabled tools, with the applicable approvals. **Research**
children are read-only. Plan mode forces delegated work into research; Debug also uses
research delegation. [Multitask mode](/editor/modes) separates coordination from
mutation by workers.

The shipped background-delegation implementation allows three running children per
parent, eight per window, and nesting depth two. Additional work can queue. These
are concurrency bounds, not a promise that a provider will have capacity.

## Watch and verify

Background launches return before the work is complete. Status is available in the
Agents panel, and results return as notifications. Do not interpret a launch receipt
as a finished task.

Avoid overlapping file ownership. Parallel workers are not automatically isolated
Git worktrees. Review the combined diff, reconcile conflicting findings, and run
integration checks before accepting the result.

External [ACP agents](/connect/agent-client-protocol) may have different delegation
features and limits. These instructions describe the native V3Code agent.