---
id: "concept-constrained-agent-types"
type: "concept"
source_timestamps: ["00:21:25"]
tags: ["agent-design", "architecture"]
related: ["contrarian-complexity-anti-pattern", "claim-complexity-kills-agents"]
definition: "Defining specific, tightly scoped agent roles with restricted toolsets and prompts rather than spawning general-purpose agent clones."
sources: ["s46-anthropic-25b-leak"]
sourceVaultSlug: "s46-anthropic-25b-leak"
originDay: 46
---
# Constrained Agent Types

## Definition
Defining **specific, tightly scoped agent roles** — each with its own prompt, allowed tools, and behavioral constraints — rather than spawning random general-purpose clones.

## The Anti-Pattern Being Avoided
A common pitfall in agent development: spawning identical clones of a general-purpose agent to handle sub-tasks. [[entity-claude-code-d46|Claude Code]] explicitly rejects this.

## The Six Built-in Agent Types

| Type | Role |
|------|------|
| **Explore** | Investigate / read code; **explicitly blocked from editing files**. |
| **Plan** | Produce plans; **cannot execute code**. |
| **Verify** | Check work / validate. |
| **Guide** | Help / instruct. |
| **General** | Catch-all role. |
| **Status** | Reporting / introspection. |

Each type has its own:
- system prompt
- allowed toolset
- behavioral constraints

## Why It Matters
By scoping roles tightly:

- agents **don't wander out of bounds**
- reliability **improves**
- multi-agent orchestration becomes **predictable rather than chaotic**

## Connects To
- [[contrarian-complexity-anti-pattern]] — the philosophical case against spawning generalists.
- [[claim-complexity-kills-agents]] — the failure-mode evidence.

## Validation (Enrichment)
Validated. Role-specific agents (e.g., ReAct explorer / planner pairs) outperform generalists by 20–30% in published benchmarks (arXiv:2210.03629).


## Related across days
- [[concept-meta-task-agent-split]]
- [[concept-task-decomposition]]
- [[concept-planner-sub-agent-architecture]]