Agents & subagents

Kanbell shows what each agent is doing, down to the subagents Claude Code starts on its own. You follow tokens and usage limits as you go. You can also give Claude Code a persona, a team of subagents, or an agent defined in the project.

Why it helps

A Claude Code session can start several subagents. In a plain terminal you only see the main conversation, and you learn about your usage limit when you hit it. The Agent map and the status bar show both as the work runs.

What you get

• Agent map (⌘3, Linux: Ctrl+Shift+3): a draggable box per session and per subagent. Each box can be opened, interrupted or stopped.
• Subagents as a tree, with live activity and their transcript.
• Tokens per session (input, output, cache), and usage limits in the status bar: what is left of the 5-hour session and the week, with the reset time.
• Persona (system instructions) and Team (subagents, each with a role, instructions, allowed tools and a model) in a profile, or Start from a template.
• Agents from .claude/agents, listed as Project agents and My agents in the ⌘⇧T menu.
• New Agent…: With Claude (a guided session that reads the project, asks questions and writes agent files) or By hand.
• Focus view: a message box ("Message the agent…") over the terminal, with the conversation.

How it works

1. Press ⌘3 (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+3) to open the Agent map. Drag boxes, or use Rearrange. Tokens and usage limits sit in the status bar.
2. In Settings › Profiles, add a Persona or a Team to a Claude Code profile.
3. Press ⌘⇧T (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+Space) and pick a project agent. Read it and click Trust and Launch the first time.
4. To use Focus, set Settings › Appearance › Session view to Focus. ⌘⇧K (Linux: Ctrl+Shift+K) switches between the terminal and Focus.

Works with

• Tokens: Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI.
• Usage limits: Claude Code and Codex. Gemini CLI shows "not available".
• Subagents, personas, teams, project agents, New Agent… and Focus: Claude Code only.

Good to know

• Usage limits for Claude Code need Claude Code 2.1.80 or newer, a Pro or Max plan, and at least one reply in a Kanbell session.
• A project agent must be trusted again whenever its file changes. Kanbell applies only its instructions, tools and model. It ignores hooks, mcpServers and permissionMode.
• With New Agent… › With Claude, each file write needs your permission.
• In Focus, the terminal comes back on its own for permissions, startup and similar moments.
• Personas, teams and guided sessions need zsh, bash or fish as login shell.

Step by step: Agents & subagents.