---
title: "One Redditor's recipe for sub-agents that do not burn Fable"
description: "A r/ClaudeCode post on keeping Fable as orchestrator and giving the legwork to Haiku, Sonnet and Opus."
date: 2026-09-09T12:00:00+02:00
lastmod: 2026-11-03T00:53:06+01:00
url: https://klimek.link/posts/2026-09-09-subagents-without-burning-fable/
author: "Marcin Klimek"
source: https://klimek.link/posts/2026-09-09-subagents-without-burning-fable/
---

# One Redditor's recipe for sub-agents that do not burn Fable

Source: [r/ClaudeCode thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/s/YcQfPG9wDL)

A Reddit poster explains how to work with Fable 5.1 all day without hitting the usage limit. Fable keeps planning, specs and judgment, while cheaper models do the legwork: Haiku or Sonnet go out as scouts to find files, Sonnet builds, Opus checks the diff and reruns the tests as a refuter, and Opus takes the hard bugs as a debugger. Sub-agents get a brief that names the goal, the files they may touch and a limit on how much they can write back, and anything bulky ends up in a scratch file.

Haiku against Sonnet as scouts was compared on one search that the poster ran, nothing more.

**TL;DR**

- Source: u/Smbridges91 on r/ClaudeCode; Fable on High, no 5-hour limit hit since last reset
- Fable orchestrates: plans, specs, spawns agents, reads reports, architecture calls, integrates
- Scout (Haiku or Sonnet): finds files, symbols, call sites; Haiku matched Sonnet with 25% fewer tokens on 22-item search
- Researcher (Sonnet): reads docs and source; marks unverified claims
- Builder (Sonnet): writes code from clear spec, runs tests
- Refuter (Opus): reviews diff, reruns tests; Debugger (Opus): hard root-cause bugs only
- Fable skips big code reading, bulk refactors, docs; one-line fixes and single greps stay with Fable
- Brief: goal, files or URLs in scope, allowed changes, verification, don'ts, output format, short limit, known facts
- Bulky results go to a scratch file; flow: Fable, Builder, Refuter, Fable
- Other: Ultracode off unless wanted, agent cap, batch related fixes, parallel read-only, no shared file edits, handoff docs

Source: https://klimek.link/posts/2026-09-09-subagents-without-burning-fable/