remove-subtask

A command for removing a smaller task from its parent task, either by deleting it or turning it into a standalone task.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to delete a subtask, convert one into an independent task, check its status and dependents, and update related task references.
Why use it?
It helps change a task breakdown without silently ignoring completed work, dependency links, or the effect on the parent task.

Command for Claude Code

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add commands/snarktank/code-editing-agent/remove-subtask
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/snarktank/code-editing-agent

Made for: Claude Code.

Per session 0 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 462 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 100% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.00462
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00231
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00092
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00046

Measured yesterday against content hash d3497cdbdd40, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

remove-subtask scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

This is a copy

100% identical to remove-subtask — 0 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

.claude/commands/tm/remove-subtask/remove-subtask.md · 84 lines

What it actually says

Remove a subtask from its parent task.

Arguments: $ARGUMENTS

Parse subtask ID to remove, with option to convert to standalone task.

Removing Subtasks

Remove a subtask and optionally convert it back to a standalone task.

Argument Parsing

  • "remove subtask 5.1"
  • "delete 5.1"
  • "convert 5.1 to task" → remove and convert
  • "5.1 standalone" → convert to standalone

Execution Options

1. Delete Subtask

task-master remove-subtask --id=<parentId.subtaskId>

2. Convert to Standalone

task-master remove-subtask --id=<parentId.subtaskId> --convert

Pre-Removal Checks

  1. Validate Subtask

    • Verify subtask exists
    • Check completion status
    • Review dependencies
  2. Impact Analysis

    • Other subtasks that depend on it
    • Parent task implications
    • Data that will be lost

Removal Process

For Deletion:

  1. Confirm if subtask has work done
  2. Update parent task estimates
  3. Remove subtask and its data
  4. Clean up dependencies

For Conversion:

  1. Assign new standalone task ID
  2. Preserve all task data
  3. Update dependency references
  4. Maintain task history

Smart Features

  • Warn if subtask is in-progress
  • Show impact on parent task
  • Preserve important data
  • Update related estimates

Example Flows

/project:tm/remove-subtask 5.1
→ Warning: Subtask #5.1 is in-progress
→ This will delete all subtask data
→ Parent task #5 will be updated
Confirm deletion? (y/n)

/project:tm/remove-subtask 5.1 convert
→ Converting subtask #5.1 to standalone task #89
→ Preserved: All task data and history
→ Updated: 2 dependency references
→ New task #89 is now independent

Post-Removal

  • Update parent task status
  • Recalculate estimates
  • Show updated hierarchy
  • Suggest next actions
Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 84 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A d3497cdbdd40

Subscribe to this mod's changes

remove-subtask is a command published in the GitHub repository snarktank/code-editing-agent (24 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 462 tokens. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 100% identical to remove-subtask, differing in 0 lines, and is treated as a copy.