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Sweep 22 Sep 2026 · 17:19Z Build v2.1.280 501 read Stable v2.1.267 Latest v2.1.280 Next v2.1.280 Feeds RSS JSON llms.txt Unofficial
Claude Code v2.1.235 ·

Task tool: omitting subagent_type now fails with the list of available agents

The Task tool now rejects launches missing subagent_type instead of silently picking a default agent

TierYou'll noticehow much it should matter to you
Useful3my rating, 1 to 5
Signal2worth watching, 1 to 5
AreaTask Toolwhat it touches
KindImprovementsin v2.1.235,
You'll notice

The Task tool now rejects launches missing subagent_type instead of silently picking a default agent

Previously, omitting subagent_type on a Task tool call silently fell back to a default agent. Now, unless the caller's agent set unambiguously implies one, the launch is rejected with an error that lists the available agents ("none" if there aren't any), reported as subagent_type_missing alongside a tengu_subagent_type_miss event carrying the count of available agents. The fork-specific refusal checks, for remote isolation and recursive fork, were factored into one shared checker so the same messages are reused when building that list.

Read from
Names in the bundlesubagent_type
Since it was published

The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.

Confirmed since Anthropic's documentation has since written up subagent_type, on Monitoring. | `subagent_type` | Subagent type for the Agent tool or legacy Task tool | `OTEL_LOG_TOOL_DETAILS` | monitoring-usage see the edit
How sure we are
Two sources agreeTwo things we can check say the same as this entry.
Anthropic's documentation agreesAnthropic's documentation has since written up subagent_type, on Monitoring.
Anthropic's release notes agreeFixed the Agent tool advertising a general-purpose default in sessions where that agent is unavailable: an omitted subagent_type there now…

See this entry in the whole of v2.1.235 →

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