[BUG] /simplify skill does not specify subagent_type, first agent launch always fails
What's Wrong?
The built-in /simplify skill instructs Claude to "Launch Three Review Agents in Parallel" (for code reuse, quality, and efficiency), but does not specify any subagent_type in its prompt.
This causes a guaranteed first failure: Claude consistently picks code-simplifier (without namespace prefix) instead of the correct fully-qualified name code-simplifier:code-simplifier, resulting in 3 "Agent type not found" errors on the first attempt.
After the initial failure, Claude retries with a different agent type — but which one it picks is unpredictable and depends on which plugins happen to be installed:
- With
feature-devplugin installed → may usefeature-dev:code-reviewer(sonnet model, different behavior than intended) - Without extra plugins → may fall back to
general-purpose - Either way, the result differs from the intended
code-simplifier:code-simplifier(opus model, simplification-focused)
What Should Happen?
The /simplify skill should explicitly specify the correct subagent_type so agents launch successfully on the first attempt with consistent behavior.
Error Messages/Logs
Agent type 'code-simplifier' not found. Available agents: general-purpose, statusline-setup, Explore, Plan, claude-code-guide, code-simplifier:code-simplifier, plugin-dev:agent-creator, ...
(Error repeated 3 times — once for each of the 3 parallel agent launches)
Steps to Reproduce
- Have the
code-simplifierplugin installed (fromclaude-plugins-official) - Make some code changes in a repo
- Run
/simplify - Observe: Claude launches 3 agents with
subagent_type: "code-simplifier"(missing namespace prefix) - All 3 agents fail with "Agent type not found"
- Claude retries — the agent type it picks depends on installed plugins (unpredictable)
Is this a regression?
I don't know
Claude Code Version
2.1.104
Platform
Anthropic API
Operating System
Windows
Terminal/Shell
Windows Terminal
Additional Information
The root cause is that /simplify is a prompt-only skill that tells Claude what to do (launch 3 review agents) but not which agent types to use. Since plugin agent types require fully-qualified names (namespace:name), Claude needs explicit guidance.
Suggested fix: Add agent type specification in the /simplify prompt, e.g.:
Use subagent_type "code-simplifier:code-simplifier" for all three review agents.This issue has 1 comment on GitHub. Read the full discussion on GitHub ↗