OpenAI Codex has launched subagents in general availability, allowing users to define custom AI agents with specific roles and model assignments. The feature enables parallel task execution with default agents like 'explorer' and 'worker', and supports custom TOML-defined agents for specialized workflows. This pattern is becoming an industry standard, with similar implementations across major AI coding platforms like Claude, Gemini, and Mistral.
Background
AI coding assistants have evolved from simple code completion tools to complex agentic systems capable of executing multi-step development tasks. The subagents pattern represents a significant advancement in orchestrating specialized AI workflows for software development.
- Source
- Simon Willison
- Published
- Mar 17, 2026 at 07:03 AM
- Score
- 7.0 / 10