Claude Code subagents: how to run parallel tasks without hitting rate limits

Claude Code subagents: how to run parallel tasks without hitting rate limits One of the least-documented features of Claude Code is its ability to spin up subagents — separate Claude instances that handle isolated tasks in parallel. If you've been running everything sequentially and wondering why your agent workflow feels slow, this is the missing piece. What is a subagent in Claude Code? When Claude Code encounters a task that can be broken into independent pieces, it can launch child processes that each have their own context window, their own tool access, and their own conversation thread. The parent agent coordinates; the subagents execute. This is different from just having a long conversation. Each subagent starts fresh — clean context, no accumulated tokens from previous steps. The rate limit problem Here's the frustrating reality: Claude's API has rate limits based on tokens per minute. When you run a long sequential workflow, you often hit the ceiling — especially if you're pr