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Equation 1 · Part 2 · Why Claude Code Delegates to Subagents, and What That Actually Buys You

Symbol T_parent

Ttotal=Tparent+∑i=1kTsubagenti,Tparent≪∑i=1kTsubagenti.T_{\mathrm{total}} = T_{\mathrm{parent}} + \sum_{i=1}^{k} T_{\mathrm{subagent}_i}, \qquad T_{\mathrm{parent}} \ll \sum_{i=1}^{k} T_{\mathrm{subagent}_i}.
TparentT_{\mathrm{parent}}

What this part means

TpT_parent is one of the signed contributions combined to compute the quantity on the left.

Its job in the formula

TpT_parent is one of the signed contributions combined to compute the quantity on the left.

The passage around this formula

…identity, isolation does not shrink the total amount of computation a system performs; it relocates where that computation’s output lands: Ttotal=Tparent+∑i=1kTsubagenti,Tparent≪∑i=1kTsubagentiT_{\mathrm{total}} = T_{\mathrm{parent}} + \sum_{i=1}^{k} T_{\mathrm{subagent}_i}, \qquad T_{\mathrm{parent}} \ll \sum_{i=1}^{k} T_{\mathrm{subagent}_i}. The parent conversation’s occupied share of its own window, TparentT_{\mathrm{parent}} , stays small and bounded even as the total work performed across k delegated subagents grows without bound. That inequality is the real content behind the phrase “context savings” — the saving is measured in the one window that has to keep attending to everything else in the…

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Learn the underlying idea

A subscript is a label attached below a symbol. It often selects a time step, component, category, or member of a sequence.

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Sources cited in the surrounding passage

These citations provide research context; check each source for the exact claim it supports.