How to properly set up subagents?

[spyder73]

Hi,

i am testing out claudish currently and i have overriden opus, sonnet, haiku and subagent (CLAUDISH_OPUS, ...) in the environment - and it is working correctly - when i run a task with /model opus it uses what i set up for CLAUDISH_OPUS (kimiko) - i am just confused - that contrary to claude code - it is not using the weaker models as subagents.
Is there a step i missed?

In addition to that - in openrouter i see that in the logs "tool_calls" where alo done using the Opus model (kimiko) instead of the subagent model.

When i start claudish without these variables i am just prompted to choose a model - and this model then seems to be chosen for everything.

[claudish-bot]

@spyder73 Two things are likely getting conflated here.

Tool calls vs. subagents:

• Tool calls (Read/Grep/Edit/Bash) inside the main conversation run on whatever model the main conversation uses — that's expected. You'd see those in OpenRouter logs on the Opus-mapped model (kimiko).
• Real subagents only happen when Claude Code invokes the Task tool, which spawns a sub-conversation.

Env var names: the actual names are CLAUDISH_MODEL_OPUS / CLAUDISH_MODEL_SONNET / CLAUDISH_MODEL_HAIKU / CLAUDISH_MODEL_SUBAGENT (note the _MODEL_ in the middle). If you wrote CLAUDISH_OPUS literally, that's a no-op. See docs/models/model-mapping.md and the priority order in packages/cli/src/cli.ts:194-202.

How subagent routing actually resolves: the proxy matches on the model name Claude Code sends (proxy-server.ts:359-376) — it routes requests containing "opus"/"sonnet"/"haiku" to the matching mapping. Claude Code's Task tool defaults to a haiku-tier model, so CLAUDISH_MODEL_HAIKU is what catches most subagent calls in practice. CLAUDISH_MODEL_SUBAGENT / CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL only kicks in when Claude Code itself is told to use a specific subagent model name.

Can you share the exact variable names you exported and a sample request from the OpenRouter log (the model field) for a call you expected to hit the subagent? That'll tell us whether Claude Code isn't spawning a subagent at all, or whether it is but the name isn't matching.

[spyder73]

CLAUDISH_MODEL_OPUS='moonshotai/kimi-k2.6'
CLAUDISH_MODEL_SONNET='qwen/qwen3.6-plus'
CLAUDISH_MODEL_HAIKU='minimax/minimax-m2.7'
CLAUDISH_MODEL_SUBAGENT='google/gemma-4-31b-it'

Date
Model
Provider
App
Input
Output
Cost
Usage Type
Speed
Finish Reason

Apr 23, 08:14 PM
Favicon for moonshotai
Kimi K2.6 NovitaAI Claudish - OpenRouter Proxy
70.150tok 4.699tok 0,0739$Provider cached Credits 39,4tok/s tool_calls

[claudish-bot]

@spyder73 Env vars look correct. But the log entry you shared doesn't actually prove a subagent ran on kimi — tool_calls as a finish reason just means the main-conversation model emitted a tool call (Read/Grep/Edit/Bash), which by design runs on whatever model is active. That's the exact case I mentioned earlier.

To check if subagents are actually spawning:

• Filter the OpenRouter log by model and look for hits on minimax/minimax-m2.7 (haiku mapping) or google/gemma-4-31b-it (subagent mapping). If you see zero traffic on those, Claude Code isn't invoking the Task tool at all in your session.
• Run with --debug and grep the log in logs/ for Task tool invocations or the model name the proxy receives — see packages/cli/src/proxy-server.ts:359-376 for where routing decisions happen.

Most prompts don't trigger a subagent unless you explicitly ask (e.g. "use a subagent to...") or use a slash command that delegates. If you want to force one, try something like explore the repo using a subagent and then re-check the OpenRouter logs for the haiku/subagent models.

[spyder73]

I just triggered it by saying "use a subagent to finish this task" - it did spawn subagents - yet both have been "opus" equivalents - kimi models

[claudish-bot]

@spyder73 That's Claude Code's behavior, not a Claudish routing bug — by default, the Task tool inherits the parent session's model, so CC is literally sending opus on the subagent request and the proxy correctly maps it to CLAUDISH_MODEL_OPUS (kimi). You can confirm by running with --debug and grepping the logs/ file for the model name the proxy receives on the subagent call (see packages/cli/src/proxy-server.ts:359-376).

To actually get subagents on a different tier, pick one:

• Define the agent in .claude/agents/<name>.md with model: haiku in the frontmatter — CC will send haiku, which hits CLAUDISH_MODEL_HAIKU (minimax-m2.7).
• Or export CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL=haiku so CC sends haiku for all Task calls.

CLAUDISH_MODEL_SUBAGENT only fires when CC sends the literal string subagent as the model, which it won't do unless you've told it to.