Overview
The concise findings, artifact, or review that it returns to the parent or next specialist.
For a parent-researcher-QA system, the parent should not send vague requests such as "research this." It should assign distinct research axes and require concise findings. The QA agent should receive the completed artifact and explicit review criteria, but not the full development conversation unless that context is necessary to judge a requirement.
For recurring workflows, store the specialist procedure as a compact skill. When isolation is important, instantiate it as a subagent with a fresh context. These approaches can be combined: a subagent can load a reusable skill and execute it independently.
Keep the hierarchy shallow. Add another specialist only when it offers a clear benefit such as a fresh review perspective, a different tool set, a distinct cost profile, or a genuinely separate stage.
These patterns can be combined without adding a deep hierarchy. Independent agents can first generate and compare possible directions, parallel researchers can investigate the selected options, a parent can implement the result, and a fresh QA agent can review the finished artifact.
Each pattern should solve a distinct problem rather than exist as an extra layer for its own sake.