Cap subagent return payloads at 1k–2k tokens to prevent 'context clash' in the lead agent

Digital Applied·medium signal

When parallel subagents each dump full context back to a coordinator, conflicting partial information poisons the lead agent's reasoning. The fix is to have every subagent return a condensed 1,000–2,000 token summary, not its raw transcript, so the coordinator integrates conclusions rather than re-deriving them. Bake the token ceiling and 'return only decisions + open questions' directive into the subagent's system prompt.