https://nick-liu.com/tags/subagents/Recent content in Subagents on Nick Liu - Software EngineerHugo -- gohugo.ioennickboy@users.noreply.github.com (Nick Liu)nickboy@users.noreply.github.com (Nick Liu)2026 Nick LiuSat, 11 Jul 2026 15:08:00 -0700https://nick-liu.com/posts/claude-code-skills-hooks-subagents/Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000nickboy@users.noreply.github.com (Nick Liu)https://nick-liu.com/posts/claude-code-skills-hooks-subagents/<div class="lead text-neutral-500 dark:text-neutral-400 !mb-9 text-xl"> My Claude Code config now holds two hooks, ten skills, and three custom subagents, and most of them started life in the wrong layer. The instruction the model followed nine times out of ten lived in a prompt until I accepted that nine out of ten is a coin I lose every day. The workflow I pasted into chats became a skill. The bulk work that was draining my priciest model's quota became a fleet of cheaper agents. Same features, different failure modes. </div> <nav class="series-progress" aria-label="Series progress"> <span class="series-progress-label">Taming Claude Code Sessions · Part 6 of 6</span> <ol class="series-progress-dots"><li class="series-progress-dot is-done"> <a href="https://nick-liu.com/posts/find-claude-code-sessions/" title="Stop Losing Your Claude Code Conversations">1</a> </li><li class="series-progress-dot is-done"> <a href="https://nick-liu.com/posts/first-claude-code-hook/" title="Your First Claude Code Hook: Auto-Name Every Session">2</a> </li><li class="series-progress-dot is-done"> <a href="https://nick-liu.com/posts/tmux-window-titles/" title="Make tmux Show What Each Window Is Doing">3</a> </li><li class="series-progress-dot is-done"> <a href="https://nick-liu.com/posts/managing-many-ai-agents/" title="Running Several AI Coding Agents Without Losing Track">4</a> </li><li class="series-progress-dot is-done"> <a href="https://nick-liu.com/posts/parallel-agents-git-worktrees/" title="Git worktrees gave each Claude agent its own sandbox. And scattered my sessions.">5</a> </li><li class="series-progress-dot is-current"> <a href="https://nick-liu.com/posts/claude-code-skills-hooks-subagents/" title="Hooks are guarantees, skills are knowledge, subagents are other people." aria-current="step">6</a> </li></ol> </nav> <div class="tested-with" role="note"> <span class="tested-with-icon" aria-hidden="true">🧪</span> <span>Tested with <strong>Claude Code</strong> <code>2.1.x</code> · macOS</span> </div> <h2 class="relative group">The four layers <div id="the-four-layers" class="anchor"></div> <span class="absolute top-0 w-6 transition-opacity opacity-0 -start-6 not-prose group-hover:opacity-100 select-none"> <a class="text-primary-300 dark:text-neutral-700 !no-underline" href="#the-four-layers" aria-label="Anchor">#</a> </span> </h2> <p>Claude Code has four extension points, and they answer four different questions:</p>