# Claude Code forked subagents inherit the parent session context

> Claude Code's new forked sub-agents inherit the parent session's full context instead of starting fresh, making parallel evaluation tasks cheaper and more accurate.

Published: 2026-04-26
URL: https://daniliants.com/insights/claude-code-released-forked-subagents/
Tags: claude-code, subagents, context-engineering, forked-sessions, agentic-workflows, token-efficiency

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## Summary

Claude Code introduced "forked sub-agents" - sub-agents that inherit the full conversation history of the parent session instead of starting from a fresh context with only a summary. Invoked via `/fork` after enabling in global `settings.json`. Best for parallel evaluation tasks (A/B/C/D comparisons) where each sub-agent needs full prior context.

## Key Insight

- **Normal sub-agents** start fresh: empty context + summary + instructions. Cheap but lossy.
- **Forked sub-agents** inherit full parent context: every message, tool call, system prompt already loaded.
- **Counter-intuitive token saving**: forking can be cheaper than spawning fresh because sub-agents skip re-reading system prompts and tool definitions already cached in parent.
- **Activation**: add config flag to global `settings.json`, then invoke with `/fork`.
- **Best use case**: parallel evaluation from multiple angles - 4 UI plan variations, PR review from 4 reviewer perspectives, multi-criteria scoring - where each branch needs identical full context to compare apples to apples.
- **Wrong use case**: discovery tasks, file searches, simple transforms - fresh sub-agent is leaner.