The Built-in Explore, Plan, and General-Purpose Agents

You do not have to build an agent to start using them. Claude Code ships with three, each tuned for a different phase of work.

Explore

Explore is a read-only search agent. It sweeps files, follows naming conventions, and reads excerpts to locate code, then reports what it found. Because it cannot edit, it is safe to point at a large unfamiliar codebase when you just need to know where something lives. You can invoke it plainly:

Use the Explore subagent to find where we handle the login cookie.

Plan

Plan is for research and architecture. It studies the relevant code and produces a step-by-step implementation plan, calling out the important files and the trade-offs. It fits the "figure out how to do this before touching anything" moment, and pairs naturally with plan mode, which you enter by cycling Shift+Tab.

General-purpose

The general-purpose agent has the full tool set and handles open-ended, multi-step tasks. Use it when a job does not fit Explore or Plan cleanly, or when you are not sure a search will land on the right match in the first few tries.

A natural workflow

These line up with a classic loop:

1. Explore to understand the ground.
2. Plan to decide the approach.
3. Implement in your main session (or a general-purpose agent).
4. Verify.

Each built-in runs in its own context, so the reading and planning noise stays out of your main session and only the conclusions come back. Run /agents to see them alongside any custom agents you have added.