The ability to regenerate lost tissues or structures can vary greatly during an animal’s life history. Annelid regeneration has been widely surveyed, but few studies examine the variation across developmental stages. Capitella teleta is an indirect developing annelid that has robust posterior regeneration as juveniles and adults. However, deletion studies have previously demonstrated that embryos are rarely capable of regulating the loss of individual cells. These disparate observations raise the question of when C. teleta becomes developmentally capable of robust regeneration. To investigate the onset of regeneration in C. teleta, I addressed three aims: 1) characterize the regeneration potential of C. teleta larvae, 2) examine the potential role of metamorphosis in promoting regenerative ability, 3) develop transgenics as a molecular tool to investigate the relationship between stem cells and regeneration potential. Assessment of regenerative potential in aims 1 and 2 was conducted utilizing confocal microscopy, EdU staining, immunohistochemistry, phalloidin staining, in situ hybridization, and nuclear staining. We concluded that C. teleta larvae are capable of initiating regeneration with successful wound healing and localized cell proliferation, but 13 do not typically replace lost tissues or structures. These results indicate that regeneration is gradually gained across C. teleta’s developmental history. Additionally, aim 2 results demonstrate that amputated C. teleta larvae can metamorphose into functional juveniles capable of growing new segments, suggesting that metamorphosis acts as a global switch to enable the animal to reliably regenerate structures essential for subsequent growth. Finally, to develop transgenics in aim 3, constructs were microinjected for either the meganuclease or PiggyBac systems that combined upstream regions for the stem cell markers vasa, nanos, or piwi to a fluorescent reporter. Meganuclease yielded little fluorescence in the vasa and piwi2 constructs at the concentrations tested. PiggyBac with a nanos promoter yielded higher fluorescence in C. teleta embryos and larvae. Fluorescence in juveniles was never observed in any of the constructs tested. Further work in transgenic development needs to be done to produce genomic integration, expression in the MPC cluster, and expression postmetamorphosis. This work demonstrates the dynamic shift in regeneration potential that occurs during Capitella teleta life history and provides a foundation for assessing how stem cells may contribute to this developmental shift in ability.