---
title: "Subagents and delegation"
description: "Delegate bounded work to specialists while retaining visibility and storage control."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cortavyn.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Subagents and delegation

Subagents give a deep agent a fresh context for a delegated task. Register a named `DeepSubagent` with a role-specific system prompt and any application tools it needs.

```java
var researcher = new DeepSubagent(
    "researcher",
    "Finds and summarizes evidence.",
    "You are a careful research specialist.",
    List.of(searchTool));

var agent = DeepAgent.builder(model)
    .subagents(researcher)
    .build();
```

The parent exposes delegated work through the `task`, `start_task`, and `await_task` tools. `start_task` returns a task ID; `await_task` retrieves its report. The default `general-purpose` subagent is available unless disabled with `generalPurposeSubagent(false)`.

## Limit specialist access

A configured specialist starts with a new agent context. If the parent uses a configured workspace, pass `WorkspacePermission` values on the `DeepSubagent` to restrict that specialist to delegated paths. Give each specialist only the tools it needs and, when appropriate, a more restrictive approval policy.

Task lifecycle state belongs in `DeepTaskStore`. Use a durable implementation whenever a task may outlive the process; pair it with durable run and todo stores if the parent can also pause for approval.

## Define specialists dynamically

The `define_specialist` tool can create a `DynamicSpecialist` during a run. Its name must use letters, digits, `_`, or `-`; it supplies a description and isolated system prompt. The resulting worker inherits the parent model, application tools, context policy, and approval policy.

Subscribe to `childStreams()` before delegation when the UI or an observability pipeline needs per-child messages, tool calls, output, or nested child streams. The parent event stream remains the right place for high-level task start and completion events.

Source: https://docs.cortavyn.org/deep-agent/subagents-and-delegation/index.mdx