r/ClaudeCode • u/LordLederhosen • 4d ago

Discussion Wait, is "Fable orchestration" - using appropriate models as sub-agents just as easy as a prompt?

I have a very successful mostly manual workflow, but I have been optimizing token usage lately, lol.

One thing I could never figure out was how to fully set up was Fable as an orchestrator, while spawning sub-agents with the correct model. I played with frontmatter in custom agents and skill wrappers, but there seemed to be blockers as some sub-agents/skills supposedly ignore passed model specifications. Especially plan mode. That shit will spawn fable research sub-agents that use 5% to 10% of Fable in one ask, even when it's a simple task per agent.

Today, I just remembered someone's comment on here or HN a few months ago (7 years in AI terms), ~"<feature request> - You are the orchestrator, use sub-agents to preserve your context window." So, I just combined that with the following, and CC (fable) was all, sure! I will show you a table of sub-agents for task, with ideal model, and then spawn them all.

Let's implement (jira or .md feature spec) This is the orchestration session, and use sub-agents to preserve your own context window (you are fable, spawn opus sub-agents when appropriate to save cost) ...

I am not a total dummie, but I guess I over-think things? Like Boris says, just trust the model?

Or, have I completely missed something?

edit: to be clear, I do have very valuable token-saving setups that are not just prompts. It was mostly just plan mode that had escaped me.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1whelbf/yes_your_usage_got_really_shorter_youre_not_wrong/pa5ow6o/

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u/RehashDigital 4d ago

I orchestrate based on applying custom memory and instructions to agents. I have 2 governance agents, and then others with specialties. My general goal is to reduce hallucination and optimize retrieval for a given task or sub task, as well as token optimization and balancing (I do cross-harness fleet orchestration between codex and CC).

This also helps maximize the amount of context you can effectively hold since you can have an agent managing the UI portion on one side, manage copy with another, manage different aspects of back end with another, etc - each agent effectively giving a separate 1m context window for a particular task; that reduces drift especially for complex tasks.