| name | parallel-subagents |
| description | Dispatches independent tasks to parallel subagents and integrates their results for faster, focused execution. Use when a plan has multiple independent tasks, or a task is large enough to delegate to a fresh focused agent. |
Parallel Subagents
A subagent is a fresh, focused worker with its own clean context. Dispatching independent tasks in
parallel is faster and keeps each agent's context lean — but a subagent starts cold, so a vague
brief or a hidden dependency turns the speedup into a mess of conflicts and rework. Dispatch only what's
truly independent, brief it completely, and verify what comes back.
When to Use
- A plan ([[work-planning]], [[orchestrated-delivery]]) has multiple independent tasks
- A task is large or self-contained enough to hand to a focused agent
- You want to keep the main thread's context lean ([[context-curation]]) by offloading detail
Don't use it to parallelize tasks that share state or have ordering dependencies — those stay
sequential.
Process
- Separate independent from dependent work. Only dispatch tasks with no shared mutable state and
no ordering dependency on each other. If task B needs A's output, they are sequential — do not
parallelize them.
- Write a self-contained brief per subagent. It cannot see this conversation. Include: the goal,
the context/background it needs, the skill(s) to follow, the exact files/paths, and the
acceptance criteria that define done.
- Constrain scope to one clear deliverable. One task, one outcome — don't let a subagent wander
into adjacent work.
- Dispatch in parallel and collect results.
- Integrate and verify. Review each result against its acceptance criteria, resolve any conflicts
at the integration points, and run the tests on the combined result — not just each piece.
- Keep the source-of-truth plan current — mark tasks done as their results land and verify.
Common Rationalizations
- "Dispatch everything for speed." — Parallelizing dependent tasks creates conflicting edits and rework.
- "The subagent already has the context." — It doesn't; it cold-starts. Put everything in the brief.
- "I'll integrate without reviewing." — Unverified merges combine three plausible-but-wrong results into one bug.
- "One big subagent task is fine." — Unscoped tasks wander; one deliverable per agent.
Red Flags
- Tasks with hidden dependencies dispatched in parallel → conflicting changes
- Briefs that assume conversation context the subagent never had
- Subagent output merged without checking it against acceptance criteria
- Combined result never tested as a whole
- No source-of-truth plan; lost track of what each agent did
Verification
