In agentic systems, more delegation isn’t always better. Imagine asking Copilot CLI to make a simple change. Instead of handling it directly, it spins up a helper agent that searches the repository, waits on a result, and stalls. Work that should have taken one step now takes three. While some tasks genuinely benefit from a specialist subagent—like exploring an unfamiliar repository, checking an independent area of the code, or running a long command while the main agent keeps moving—delegation isn’t free. Every handoff adds coordination overhead, tool calls, and wait time. If an agent delegates too eagerly, the “help” can become friction.
We recently released an improvement to our agentic harness called smarter subagent delegation. This makes Copilot CLI more selective by helping the main agent:
Stay focused when it can move faster on its own.
Delegate when a specialist creates real leverage.
Parallelize work when tasks are truly independent.
