Dispatching Parallel Agents

Parallelism reduces elapsed time only when it does not multiply integration ambiguity.

Dispatch checklist

1. Define the shared outcome and acceptance evidence.
2. Map dependencies and identify the critical path.
3. Split by coherent responsibility, not arbitrary file count.
4. Give every agent a disjoint write set and a narrow prompt.
5. State repository rules, interfaces, expected artifacts, and stop conditions.
6. Decide who integrates, resolves conflicts, and runs the final proof.

Good units are an independent reference/eval update, a script with its tests, or separate adapters with a stable manifest contract. Bad units are two agents editing the same public skill, guessing an interface that another agent owns, or investigating one symptom with competing hypotheses.

Handoff contract

Each agent returns:

• files changed;
• decisions and assumptions;
• commands run and exact result;
• known gaps or conflicts;
• follow-up needed by the integrator.

Treat agent output as untrusted work product. Read the diff and rerun the relevant checks before merging. Do not claim the aggregate task is complete because every agent reported success.

Completion condition

Parallel work is integrated only after interface compatibility, conflict resolution, focused checks, and one fresh aggregate verification pass.