A lighter agent is not a cheaper model

My subagent skill told the main agent to use the built-in Explore agent for cheap searches. While updating the skill for a new model, my agent read the Claude Code subagent docs and found that this line did not do what I thought.

A subagent without an explicit model inherits the main conversation’s model. Explore does the same. With Opus as my main model, those “cheap” searches were running on Opus. A fork ignores the model setting entirely.

Now the skill asks for the model on every call. A cheaper agent is not a type of agent. It is the model you pass. I have not measured the savings yet.