A subagent is a helper Claude hands a job to. In the desktop app and VS Code, those helpers now always run in the background, so your main conversation stays open and you can keep typing while they work.
Here is what changed in Claude Code 2.1.302, what a fork is, and the one catch.
What you get
Hand off a job and keep chatting. When a helper finishes, its result arrives as a message in your main conversation.
What changed in 2.1.302
- The desktop app and VS Code always run the main conversation's subagents in the background, as the terminal does, instead of letting Claude choose.
- Fork subagents are on by default in claude -p, the Agent SDK, the desktop app and VS Code, as they already were in the terminal.
- A subagent's own Agent calls in claude -p, the Agent SDK, the desktop app and VS Code now run in the foreground by default.
Free, for your email
Get the full setup steps + the copy-paste setup prompt
The rest of this guide (4 more sections, 1 copy-paste prompt) opens right here. The setup prompt, one paste into Claude that sets it all up, comes by email only. Use your real address.
50,000+ follow where these guides come from. No spam, unsubscribe in one click.