# Advisor tool (Claude API)

> Claude API tool where a cheaper model consults a stronger one

- Category: Guides & reading (`guides`)
- Official: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/advisor-tool
- Wunderlust: https://wunderlust.xyz/r/claude-advisor-tool
- Image: https://wunderlust.xyz/media/claude-advisor-tool-poster.jpg
- Video preview: https://wunderlust.xyz/media/claude-advisor-tool.webm
- Added: 2026-11-05

## What it is

The advisor tool, in beta, pairs a faster, cheaper executor model with a more capable advisor model. The executor consults the advisor mid-generation and gets strategic guidance, all in a single request.

## What it’s for

For long agent tasks (coding, computer use, research) where the expensive model only guides decisions rather than generating the whole output.

## Benefits

- Guidance from a stronger model without swapping the executor
- The advisor reads the executor's full transcript
- Configurable limits on uses and tokens per call
- Advisor usage shows up separately in the usage field

## Caveats

- In beta, with the header advisor-tool-2026-03-01
- The advisor is billed at the advisor model's rates, the executor at its own
- Not suited to single-turn questions; no streaming during the advisor call
- Benchmarks and prices published by third parties were not validated; evaluating with hundreds of prompts is recommended

## Similar on Wunderlust

- [Anthropic's prompt engineering docs](https://wunderlust.xyz/r/anthropic-prompt-engineering.md): Anthropic's guide to prompting best practices for Claude models
- [Claude Code](https://wunderlust.xyz/r/claude-code.md): Anthropic's terminal coding agent, with official documentation
- [OpenAI's guides on agents and AI use cases](https://wunderlust.xyz/r/openai-guias-ia.md): Two OpenAI guides: building AI agents and scaling use cases
- [Prompting guide 101, Google Workspace](https://wunderlust.xyz/r/prompting-guide-101-google-workspace.md): Google's official guide with prompts for Workspace tasks and roles
- [CC for PMs](https://wunderlust.xyz/r/cc-for-pms.md): Author's site with articles and courses on Claude Code for PMs
- [Building effective agents](https://wunderlust.xyz/r/building-effective-agents.md): Anthropic article on patterns for workflows and agents