# The Orchestrator's Tax

DevFeed: [The Orchestrator's Tax](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-orchestrator-s-tax-4422.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://martinfowler.com/articles/orchestrator-tax.html>)

Author: Martin Fowler (martin@martinfowler.com)

Published: 2026-07-28T13:10:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Martin Fowler](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/martin-fowler.md>)

Topics: [Multi Agent Systems](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/multi-agent-systems.md>), [systems](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/systems.md>), [Claude Code](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/claude-code.md>), [incident](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/incident.md>)

Tags: [agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agents.md>), [delegation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/delegation.md>), [incident](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/incident.md>), [memory](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/memory.md>), [multi-agent](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/multi-agent.md>), [parallelism](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/parallelism.md>), [workflow](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/workflow.md>)

## AI overview

Rahul Garg argues that the main cost of subagents in long-running multi-agent work is not necessarily execution time or parallelism, but the orchestrator's limited working memory. Drawing on an exploratory Claude Code session involving four subagents, the article examines delegation, context overhead, and the need for explicit delegation rules.

## Source excerpt

Subagents get justified by time saved and parallel execution, but Rahul Garg explains that's not what matters most. Every token in the orchestrator's context is competing for its attention, and the real value of a subagent is what it keeps out of that context. Subagents should be treated as a tool for protecting the orchestrator's working memory, offloading reasoning it doesn't need to hold onto. Doing this well means giving the orchestrator explicit ground rules for when and how to delegate. more...