diff --git a/scripts/skill-check.mjs b/scripts/skill-check.mjs
index 663e658..7c0d77c 100644
--- a/scripts/skill-check.mjs
+++ b/scripts/skill-check.mjs
@@ -3023,25 +3023,32 @@ record('a requested agent is never silently swapped for another',
 
 /* ── Subagents ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── */
 
-record('subagent skills are inherited one level deep',
-  runtime.agentSkillIds(rootAgent, ALL_AGENTS).length >= rootAgent.skills.length,
-  `${rootAgent.skills.length} own → ${runtime.agentSkillIds(rootAgent, ALL_AGENTS).length} with subagents`);
+/* `subagents` means DELEGATE TO, not borrow from — CLAUDE.md §3 and §6. These
+   checks pin that, because the opposite behaviour lived here for a long time
+   and reads as reasonable: a parent silently carried one level of its
+   subagents' skills, which is a second and incompatible meaning for the key
+   the backend uses to spawn a delegated run. */
 
-record('an unpublished subagent contributes nothing',
+record('an agent carries only its own skills, never a subagent\'s',
   (() => {
-    const draftSub = { ...agentReg.getAgent(ALL_AGENTS, 'analytics-agent'), status: 'draft' };
-    const others = ALL_AGENTS.map((a) => (a.id === 'analytics-agent' ? draftSub : a));
-    const withDraft = runtime.agentSkillIds(rootAgent, others);
-    const withPublished = runtime.agentSkillIds(rootAgent, ALL_AGENTS);
-    return withDraft.length <= withPublished.length;
-  })());
+    const a = { id: 'a', skills: ['s1'], subagents: ['b'], status: 'published' };
+    const b = { id: 'b', skills: ['s2'], subagents: [], status: 'published' };
+    const carried = runtime.agentSkillIds(a, [a, b]);
+    return carried.length === 1 && carried[0] === 's1';
+  })(),
+  'reaching another agent is delegation, which the runtime does with its own budget and trajectory');
 
-record('a subagent cycle terminates',
+record('the shipped root agent carries exactly what it declares',
+  runtime.agentSkillIds(rootAgent, ALL_AGENTS).length === new Set(rootAgent.skills).size,
+  `${new Set(rootAgent.skills).size} declared`);
+
+record('a subagent cycle cannot be walked, because nothing walks subagents here',
   (() => {
     const a = { id: 'a', skills: ['s1'], subagents: ['b'], status: 'published' };
     const b = { id: 'b', skills: ['s2'], subagents: ['a'], status: 'published' };
-    return runtime.agentSkillIds(a, [a, b]).length === 2;
-  })());
+    return runtime.agentSkillIds(a, [a, b]).length === 1;
+  })(),
+  'cycles are refused at publish (definition.FindSubagentCycle) and bounded at run time by the depth cap');
 
 /* ── Starters ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── */
 
diff --git a/src/components/agents/AgentConfigure.jsx b/src/components/agents/AgentConfigure.jsx
index 09440aa..8b39c04 100644
--- a/src/components/agents/AgentConfigure.jsx
+++ b/src/components/agents/AgentConfigure.jsx
@@ -804,7 +804,7 @@ export function AgentConfigure({
               icon={Layers}
               title="Subagents"
               value={fields.subagents.length ? `${fields.subagents.length} configured` : 'None'}
-              description="Other agents whose skills this one may also use. Most need none."
+              description="Other agents this one may hand a question to and report back from. Most need none."
               open={setting === 'behavior-subagents'}
               onToggle={() => toggleSetting('behavior-subagents')}
               last
@@ -849,8 +849,9 @@ export function AgentConfigure({
                 </Select>
 
                 <p className="text-caption leading-relaxed text-ink-4">
-                  A subagent&apos;s skills are still bounded by the current page — borrowing them
-                  cannot reach data this page does not hold.
+                  A subagent runs as you, with the same access you have and out of the same
+                  budget as the question that reached it — so delegating cannot read anything
+                  you could not read yourself, and cannot buy more time by asking again.
                 </p>
               </div>
             </SettingRow>
diff --git a/src/lib/agents/runtime.js b/src/lib/agents/runtime.js
index 83f6612..7d4de3e 100644
--- a/src/lib/agents/runtime.js
+++ b/src/lib/agents/runtime.js
@@ -39,32 +39,31 @@ import { reasoningFor } from './vocabulary';
 /* ── Scope ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── */
 
 /**
- * The skill ids an agent carries, including one level of subagent.
+ * The skill ids an agent carries.
  *
- * One level, with a visited set. A deeper walk would let a chain of agents
- * assemble a skill list nobody wrote down, and the cycle guard is not
- * optional — `readAgentRegistry` rejects self-reference, but A→B→A is only
- * caught here.
+ * Its OWN skills, and only those. `subagents` used to be folded in here — one
+ * level deep, so a parent silently carried everything its subagents carried —
+ * and that was a second, incompatible meaning for the same key.
  *
- * A subagent that is not published contributes nothing: an archived or draft
- * agent has been taken out of service, and inheriting its skills through a
- * parent would put it back.
+ * CLAUDE.md §3 defines `subagents` as "keys of other specs this may DELEGATE
+ * to", and §6 as a tool call from the parent's perspective: the subagent runs
+ * its own turn, as the same caller, sharing the parent's budget, and returns
+ * an answer. The backend implements that. Borrowing the skills instead meant
+ * the two halves of the product disagreed about what an agent was allowed to
+ * do, and krow-workforce-agent carried eight delegation tools AND the
+ * flattened skills of those same eight agents — asking twice for one answer.
+ *
+ * So this returns what the spec says it carries. Reaching another agent is
+ * delegation, which is the runtime's job and has its own budget and its own
+ * trajectory.
+ *
+ * `agents` is still accepted so every call site keeps working; it is no longer
+ * read. Removing the parameter would be a wider edit for no behavioural gain,
+ * and agentScopedDisabledWith exists precisely to pass it.
  */
-export function agentSkillIds(agent, agents = []) {
+export function agentSkillIds(agent) {
   if (!agent) return [];
-
-  const ids = new Set(agent.skills || []);
-  const seen = new Set([agent.id]);
-
-  for (const subId of agent.subagents || []) {
-    if (seen.has(subId)) continue;
-    seen.add(subId);
-    const sub = getAgent(agents, subId);
-    if (!sub || sub.status !== 'published') continue;
-    for (const id of sub.skills || []) ids.add(id);
-  }
-
-  return [...ids];
+  return [...new Set(agent.skills || [])];
 }
 
 /**