caid-asynchronous-software-agents

name	caid-asynchronous-software-agents
title	Effective Strategies for Asynchronous Software Engineering Agents
version	0.0.3
engine	skillxiv-v0.0.3-claude-opus-4.6
license	MIT
url	https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.21489
keywords	["Multi-Agent Coordination","Git Workflows","Asynchronous Execution","Software Engineering","Agent Architecture"]
description	Coordinate multiple LLM agents via CAID framework: centralized task delegation, asynchronous execution in isolated git worktrees, structured integration through git merges. Branch-and-merge with worktree isolation yields +26.7% absolute improvement on PaperBench; ranked strategies show structured JSON communication and dependency-aware delegation outperform soft isolation.

Ranked Findings

1. Branch-and-Merge with Git Worktree Isolation (Most Effective)

Strategy: Each engineer operates in a separate git worktree; changes merge to main through explicit merge+test validation.

Performance:

• PaperBench: +26.7% absolute improvement over single-agent baseline
• Commit0: +14.3% absolute improvement
• Key advantage: Physical workspace separation prevents concurrent edit conflicts; enables true parallelism

Implementation:

git worktree add ./worktree-engineer-1 main
cd ./worktree-engineer-1
# Engineer 1 works independently, commits locally
git commit -m "feature A"
cd ..
git merge ./worktree-engineer-1
git test --scope=modified  # Validate before main branch

2. Dependency-Aware Task Delegation

Strategy: Manager constructs dependency graph before assigning work; prioritizes upstream tasks enabling earlier validation.

Prioritization criteria:

• Enable earlier test execution on dependent modules
• Expose more evaluation signals sooner
• Lie upstream in dependency chain (less reversal risk)

Impact: Reduces integration overhead and catches issues before downstream work begins.

3. Structured JSON Communication

Strategy: Manager outputs machine-parsable JSON specifications for task assignments (vs. free-form dialogue).

Specification includes:

• Task assignments with target scope
• File paths and target functions
• Dependency information
• Execution constraints

Advantage: Prevents alignment failures; engineers execute precisely defined work vs. interpreting ambiguous language.

4. Self-Verification Before Integration

Strategy: Engineers execute tests within their worktree before submitting commits to main.

Workflow:

# Engineer in worktree-engineer-1
git test --scope=local

git merge --to main