[FEATURE] Cache read tokens from parallel subagent dispatch accumulate without upper bound
Resolved 💬 4 comments Opened Apr 10, 2026 by Fearvox Closed May 25, 2026
Preflight Checklist
- [x] I have searched existing issues and this has not been reported yet
- [x] This is a single bug report
- [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code
What's Wrong?
When dispatching parallel subagents (via the Agent tool with allowParallel: true), each subagent session re-reads the full conversation history and parent context from cache. This causes cache_read tokens to accumulate rapidly and without upper bound across parallel subagent dispatches.
Reproduction
- Spawn 3 parallel subagents simultaneously (each running a long task)
- Observe that each subagent independently re-chats the same conversation history from cache
- Cache read tokens accumulate multiplicatively: 3 agents × N context tokens each = 3N cache reads
- A 90-minute parallel subagent session can burn ~15M cache_read tokens with no user-visible benefit
Observed Symptom
Subagent 1: cache_read = X tokens
Subagent 2: cache_read = X tokens
Subagent 3: cache_read = X tokens
Total: 3X cache_read tokens billed to parent session
The parent session is billed for cache reads that were done independently by each subagent — but subagents are supposed to be isolated. They should not be inflating the parent session's cache read token count.
Expected Behavior
Cache read tokens should either:
- Not bill to parent session — subagent cache reads are subagent overhead, not parent overhead
- Deduplicate across subagents — if multiple subagents read the same context, count it once
- Have a clear cap — set a maximum cache read budget per subagent dispatch to prevent runaway accumulation
Technical Notes
- This is distinct from issue #45958 (subagent notification stall) — this is specifically about cache_read token accumulation inflating the parent session's usage metrics
- The same pattern affects
CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1parallel dispatch workflows - Not limited to long-running sessions; even short parallel tasks trigger multiplicative cache reads
Suggested Labels
area:agents, area:cost, enhancement
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