Tier your Claude Code sub-agents: let the top model plan and stay idle
aakashgupta · x · 2026-11-12
Aakash Gupta shares the Claude Code recipe he runs daily for his content business: the strongest model should spend most of its time doing nothing.
- Idle conductor: the top model plans, then cheaper workers execute. The reason is context — every file the conductor opens crowds out the plan it protects; a worker can read the mess and return a short report.
- Critical step 3: sub-agents copy the conductor's model by default, so without explicitly setting a cheaper model, every worker runs at top-model pricing — "putting every new hire on the CEO's salary."
- In practice: data pulls and renders go to Sonnet at medium effort; writing that must be right gets the stronger model.
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