Agents
Specialist personas, isolated workers, or coordinated teams with distinct prompts and tools
Extension Name Custom Agents and Subagents
Vendor Terms custom agents, subagents, plan agent, headless mode
Scopes
Project / Repo RootUser / Home
Interfaces IDE, CLI
Availability current (explicit)
Trust Model Isolated workers that default to read-only; write tools require explicit opt-in via allowedTools globs
Notes CLI agents are JSON configs with tools, resources, hooks, and MCP servers; IDE subagents are Markdown with YAML frontmatter; DAG-based task dependencies for CLI subagents; headless mode for CI/CD; ACP enables CLI agents in JetBrains and Zed
Extension Name Subagents
Vendor Terms subagents, custom subagents, managed subagents, agent teams
Scopes
User / HomeProject / Repo RootOrganization / EnterpriseCloud / Web Session
Interfaces terminal CLI, VS Code, Desktop, web
Availability current (explicit)
Trust Model Isolated workers with their own context, prompt, and tools; only summary returns to parent
Notes Five priority levels (managed > CLI flag > project > user > plugin); built-in subagents include Explore, Plan, and Guide; supports isolation worktrees, persistent memory, and background mode; managed deployment via managed settings
Extension Name Custom Agents
Vendor Terms custom agents, agent profiles, .agent.md
Scopes
User / HomeProject / Repo RootOrganization / Enterprise
Interfaces GitHub.com, VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, Eclipse, Xcode, CLI
Availability current (explicit)
Trust Model Isolated persona with its own instructions, tool restrictions, and context; enterprise agents override org agents
Notes Enterprise-level agents via .github-private repo; agent-to-agent delegation via tool alias; subagents handle delegated work in isolated context
Extension Name Subagents
Vendor Terms subagents, custom agents, agent threads
Scopes
User / HomeProject / Repo RootCloud / Web Session
Interfaces app, CLI
Availability current (explicit)
Trust Model Isolated workers that inherit parent sandbox policy; approval requests surface from inactive threads
Notes Three built-in agents (default, worker, explorer); custom agents as TOML files at user or project scope; max 6 concurrent threads, nesting depth of 1