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This is interesting, and I think there are use cases where this feature may make sense. But this is not the feature they should or could have built, at least f

This is interesting, and I think there are use cases where this feature may make sense. But this is not the feature they should or could have built, at least for Claude Code. CC already had a feature very similar to this -- subagents (or agents-as-tools). Like Skills, Subagents have a metadata description that allows the model to choose to use them in the right moment. Like Skills, Subagents can have their own instruction MD file(s) which can point to other files or scripts. Like Skills, Subagents can have their own set of tools. But critically, unlike Skills, Subagents don't pollute the main agent's context with noise from the specialized task. And this, I think, is a major product design failure on Anthropic's part. Instead of a new concept, why not just expand the Subagent concept with something like "context sharing" or "context merging" or "in-context Subagents", or add the ability for the user to interactively chat with the Subagent via the normal CLI chat? Now people have to choose between Skill and Subagent for what I think will be very similar or identical use cases, when really the choice of how this extra prompting/scripting should relate to the agent loop should be a secondary configuration choice rather than a fundamental architecture one. Looking forward to a Skill-Subagenr shim that allows for this flexibility. Not thrilled that a hack like that is necessary, but I guess it's nice that CC's use of simple MD files on disk make it easy enough to accomplish.

etothet 1y ago
These are good points and I generally agree with you. My guess is that, as I understand it, Anthropic’s belief is that subagents are usually not the proper tool for most tasks. In their guides and videos about proper use of subagents, they seem to really try to steer you toward “workflows” rather than subagents. Maybe it’s time they rethink the overall strategy so that each new concept doesn’t have to be its own distinct feature (skills, plugins, marketplaces, subagents, etc). https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/building-effective-agents https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/building-effective-age...
simonw 1y ago
I think skills and subagents are entirely complementary to each other. A subagent can use a skill. A skill can encourage the agent to run a subagent.
- redhale 1y ago
  I don't disagree with you, and I don't think this is anything nearing a catastrophic or fatal mistake. It's just kind of sloppy, I guess? Let me just say: I'm nitpicking what I think is overall an incredible tool and a great new feature of said tool. For a moment, pretend Subagents don't exist. And Anthropic just released "In-Thread Skills" (identical to what are now "Skills") and "Out-of-Thread Skills" (identical to Subagents). I feel like the library of Skills that would be published would be useful in more circumstances if this were the reality. Of course some may publish both versions of a thing, and of course you could do a shim of some kind, but it could be _nicer_. Another similar thing: how are Skills different than the Slash Command Tool [0]? Why not just amend Slash Commands to allow them to include scripts and other supplementary files stored in a directory, and boom, you have Skills. Instead we have a net new primitive. And the larger unfortunate reality is that because Claude Code is the white-hot center of this white-hot ecosystem, there are likely a dozen other tools in this space that are going to copy the exact same primitive set just to have perceived parity with CC. I'm veering into "yelling at clouds" territory now, so I'll get off my soapbox. It's just one of those things that feels like it could be slightly more awesome than the awesome that it is, is all. [0] https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/slash-commands#slashcommand-tool https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/slash-commands#s...

etothet 1y ago

These are good points and I generally agree with you. My guess is that, as I understand it, Anthropic’s belief is that subagents are usually not the proper tool for most tasks. In their guides and videos about proper use of subagents, they seem to really try to steer you toward “workflows” rather than subagents. Maybe it’s time they rethink the overall strategy so that each new concept doesn’t have to be its own distinct feature (skills, plugins, marketplaces, subagents, etc). https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/building-effective-agents https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/building-effective-age...

simonw 1y ago

I think skills and subagents are entirely complementary to each other. A subagent can use a skill. A skill can encourage the agent to run a subagent.

redhale 1y ago
I don't disagree with you, and I don't think this is anything nearing a catastrophic or fatal mistake. It's just kind of sloppy, I guess? Let me just say: I'm nitpicking what I think is overall an incredible tool and a great new feature of said tool. For a moment, pretend Subagents don't exist. And Anthropic just released "In-Thread Skills" (identical to what are now "Skills") and "Out-of-Thread Skills" (identical to Subagents). I feel like the library of Skills that would be published would be useful in more circumstances if this were the reality. Of course some may publish both versions of a thing, and of course you could do a shim of some kind, but it could be _nicer_. Another similar thing: how are Skills different than the Slash Command Tool [0]? Why not just amend Slash Commands to allow them to include scripts and other supplementary files stored in a directory, and boom, you have Skills. Instead we have a net new primitive. And the larger unfortunate reality is that because Claude Code is the white-hot center of this white-hot ecosystem, there are likely a dozen other tools in this space that are going to copy the exact same primitive set just to have perceived parity with CC. I'm veering into "yelling at clouds" territory now, so I'll get off my soapbox. It's just one of those things that feels like it could be slightly more awesome than the awesome that it is, is all. [0] https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/slash-commands#slashcommand-tool https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/slash-commands#s...