Skills and Subagents
Skills and subagents solve different context problems.
Skills
Section titled “Skills”Use skills for reusable instructions, domain knowledge, or workflows that should load only when relevant.
Good examples:
- API conventions.
- Release checklist.
- Security review rubric.
- “Fix a GitHub issue” workflow.
- Product-specific terminology.
Put skills in .claude/skills/ with a SKILL.md.
Subagents
Section titled “Subagents”Use subagents when a task should happen in a separate context window:
- Investigating a large area of the codebase.
- Reviewing a diff.
- Checking security concerns.
- Looking for edge cases.
- Comparing implementation against a plan.
Rule of thumb
Section titled “Rule of thumb”Use CLAUDE.md for always-on project rules.
Use skills for reusable context that should load on demand.
Use subagents when the work would clutter the main conversation or needs an independent review.