Claude skills vs subagents
Both live in your .claude folder, so people mix them up. The difference is where the work happens.
The difference
- Skills load instructions into the current conversation when a task matches.
- Subagents (.claude/agents/) are separate assistants with their own context window, prompt, and tool permissions. Claude hands them a task and gets a result back.
- Use a skill for how to do something. Use a subagent for a big side job you want kept out of your main context, like a code review or research sweep.
Combine them
A subagent can use skills too. A review subagent with a code review skill keeps reviews consistent and keeps your main chat clean.
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Related: What are Claude skills | How to use them | Skills vs MCP