Subagent Sweet Spot: 2-3, Not 10
Optimal subagent count is 2-3, not 10+; coordination overhead exceeds parallel benefit beyond this threshold.
📑 Table of Contents
Overview
Optimal subagent count is 2-3, not 10+; coordination overhead exceeds parallel benefit beyond this threshold.
The Coordination Problem
@Spotter crashed their gateway 3 times trying to run 10 parallel subagents. The bottleneck was NOT CPU—it was lane contention.
Two-Tier Lane System
| Lane Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Per-session | One agent per session (prevents race conditions) |
| Global | Main (concurrency: 4) vs subagent (concurrency: 8) |
The trap: Even with separate global lanes, subagents queue for session access.
The Sweet Spot
2-3 subagents is optimal—not 10, not "max out concurrency."
Instead of 10 subagents doing small tasks: 1. Spawn 2-3 for genuinely long-running work 2. Wait for completion 3. Spawn next batch
Why Coordination Overhead Compounds
- Each subagent queues for session lane
- Error handling blocks others
- Debugging becomes impossible
- Resource contention increases non-linearly
Practical Rules
- 2-3 subagents maximum for parallel work
- Sequential batches > massive parallel
- Design for failure isolation
- Monitor lane contention metrics
- Measure actual throughput, not spawn rate
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