Symbol T_total
otal is part of the quantity the equation computes from the expression on the right.
Read this term in its guide →Published equation contexts
Why this formula appears here
This is the specific problem a subagent is built to solve, and Claude Code’s own documentation gives a concrete, numeric illustration of the effect rather than an abstract claim about it. In a worked session example, a subagent delegated to research a piece of session-timeout handling reads three files totalling 6,100 tokens of raw source, entirely inside its own isolated window — “None of this touches your main context,” the documentation notes of the reads — and returns a single 420-token summary to the parent conversation, which the documentation flags directly: “That’s the context savings” [ 2 ] . The parent’s window absorbs an addition roughly a fourteenth the size of what was actually…
Read the representative guide
Symbol T_parent
arent is one of the signed contributions combined to compute the quantity on the left.
Read this term in its guide →Symbol i
i appears in the bound of this sum. The bound states where the repeated operation starts, ends, or which values it includes.
Read this term in its guide →Symbol k
k appears in the bound of this sum. The bound states where the repeated operation starts, ends, or which values it includes.
Read this term in its guide →Symbol T_subagent_i
ubagen is one of the signed contributions combined to compute the quantity on the left.
Read this term in its guide →Starting index or lower bound: i=1
This label says where the repeated addition, multiplication, or accumulation starts. Read its value or condition together with the article’s description of the index.
Read this term in its guide →Ending index or upper bound: k
This label says where the repeated addition, multiplication, or accumulation stops. It sets the last term or end of the range.
Read this term in its guide →Starting index or lower bound: i=1
This label says where the repeated addition, multiplication, or accumulation starts. Read its value or condition together with the article’s description of the index.
Read this term in its guide →Ending index or upper bound: k
This label says where the repeated addition, multiplication, or accumulation stops. It sets the last term or end of the range.
Read this term in its guide →How to interpret it
Read it with the definitions, units, and assumptions supplied by the article.
Research cited beside this formula
Published contexts (1)
A symbol can carry a different meaning in another article. Each occurrence keeps its own guide and term definitions.
Equation 1 · AI Agents & Systems
Why Claude Code Delegates to Subagents, and What That Actually Buys You
This equation states an equality: the expressions on both sides have the same value under the article’s assumptions.
This is the specific problem a subagent is built to solve, and Claude Code’s own documentation gives a concrete, numeric illustration of the effect rather than an abstract claim about it. In a worked session example, a subagent delegated to research a piece of session-timeout handling reads three files totalling 6,100 tokens of raw source, entirely inside its own isolated window — “None of this touches your main context,” the documentation notes of the reads — and returns a single 420-token summary to the parent conversation, which the documentation flags directly: “That’s the context savings” [ 2 ] . The parent’s window absorbs an addition roughly a fourteenth the size of what was actually…
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