Agents and subagents

The Agents view shows every session of the project as a box on a map, with its subagents. It is also where you read token counts and usage limits. For Claude Code, you can give a profile a persona or a team, launch the agents defined in your repo, and write to the agent from a message box.

See your agents on the Agent map

1. Open the Agents view: ⌘3 (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+3). It shows the Agent map.
2. Each session and each subagent is a box. Drag the boxes where you want them.
3. Click Rearrange to tidy the map, or Recenter to center it again.
4. Open a box's menu to Open the session, Link to Issue…, Interrupt or Stop it.

Kanbell tracks each agent in one of these states: Working, Needs your answer, Finished · to review, Your turn or Finished.

Follow subagents

With Claude Code, subagents get their own box. You see them as a tree, with their live activity and their transcript. Codex and Gemini CLI show "Subagents aren't available with {agent}."

Read tokens and usage limits

• Tokens: input, output and cache tokens, per session. Works for Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI.
• Usage limits: the status bar shows what remains of the 5-hour session and of the week, in %, with the reset time. Claude Code and Codex only. Gemini CLI shows "not available".

For Claude Code, the limits appear only when all three are true:

1. Claude Code is 2.1.80 or newer.
2. You have a Pro or Max plan.
3. At least one reply came in a Kanbell session.

Give a profile a persona or a team

Claude Code profiles only, in Settings › Profiles.

1. Open a Claude Code profile, or create one.
2. Click Start from a template to begin from Delegating tech lead, Demanding reviewer, Frontend dev, General developer, Product and business, or Blank.
3. Fill in the Persona: the system instructions the agent follows.
4. Build the Team: subagents, each with a role, instructions, allowed tools and a model (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku, or the same as the agent).

Launch agents from .claude/agents

Agent files from .claude/agents appear in the profile menu (⌘⇧T, Linux: Ctrl+Shift+Space), under Project agents and My agents.

1. Pick a project agent. The first time, Kanbell shows the file.
2. Read it, then click Trust and Launch.
3. If the file changes later, Kanbell asks you again.

Kanbell applies only the file's instructions, tools and model. It ignores hooks, mcpServers and permissionMode.

Create a new agent

Choose New Agent…, then:

• With Claude: a guided session reads the project, asks you questions and writes the agent files. Each write needs your permission.
• By hand: you fill in the agent yourself.

Write to Claude in Focus view

1. Go to Settings › Appearance › Session view and choose Focus instead of Terminal.
2. A message box ("Message the agent…") now sits over the terminal, with the conversation.
3. Press ⌘⇧K (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+K) to switch between Focus and the terminal.

The terminal comes back on its own for permissions, startup and similar moments.

Good to know

• Subagents, personas, teams, agents from .claude/agents, New Agent… and Focus view work with Claude Code only.
• Personas, teams and guided sessions need zsh, bash or fish as your login shell.
• The same boxes appear in the Overview, across all your projects.

Related: Sessions, Board, and the Agents feature.