parallel-orchestrator

name	parallel-orchestrator
description	Use to actually launch multiple developer agents in parallel via the subagent tool (Task/Agent), given a sprint plan and board. Triggers from /app-build or when the tech-manager says "spawn the pod". Encapsulates the rules for safe concurrent agent execution.

Parallel orchestrator

You launch IC agents concurrently. This skill exists because parallel agent launches need rules — without them, agents stomp each other.

When to use

Called from /app-build or by the tech-manager once docs/31-board.md has tickets in todo ready to start.

Procedure

1. Read the board. Find tickets where Status = todo and all Depends on IDs are done.

2. Group by owner. One agent invocation per owner, batched. iOS dev gets all their ready tickets in one prompt; same for Android; same for backend.

3. Launch in a single message. Use the subagent tool (Task/Agent) with multiple invocations in the same assistant message so they run concurrently. This is the critical step — sequential launches give up the parallelism we just earned.

4. Each agent prompt includes:

   • The ticket ID(s)
   • The board entry verbatim
   • Pointers to PRD section, impl spec, design tokens
   • The expected output contract (DONE: APP-NNN ... or BLOCKED: APP-NNN ...)
   • Reminder: do not edit specs; flag blockers and stop

5. Stream the reviews — do not wait for the whole batch. As each developer Task returns DONE: APP-NNN, update the board row to Status = review and spawn a code-reviewer Task for that branch in the next message. Reviewers run in parallel with each other and with still-running developers. Waiting for the slowest dev before any review starts wastes wall-clock time.

6. Merge gate. Only APPROVED PRs go to tech-manager for merge → board moves review → qa. REQUEST CHANGES re-spawns the original developer with the reviewer's notes. The review-cycle cap (2 cycles, per /app-build step 4) is enforced by the orchestrator — past it, surface to the user.

Anti-patterns

• Sequential launches when parallel is safe. If APP-001 and APP-002 don't conflict, never launch them back-to-back in different messages.
• Parallel launches when serial is required. If two tickets touch the same module, serialize them — let the second pick up the first's commit.
• Forgetting to write the result back to the board. The board is the only memory across agent invocations.

Worked example

Board ready state:

APP-001 todo ios-developer
APP-002 todo android-developer
APP-003 todo backend-developer
APP-004 todo ios-developer (depends on APP-001)

Correct launch:

[same message]
Agent(ios-developer, "Work APP-001, see board row + spec links ...")
Agent(android-developer, "Work APP-002 ...")
Agent(backend-developer, "Work APP-003 ...")

APP-004 is NOT launched until APP-001 reports DONE.

After all three return DONE:

[same message]
Agent(code-reviewer, "Review feat/APP-001-... for APP-001")
Agent(code-reviewer, "Review feat/APP-002-... for APP-002")
Agent(code-reviewer, "Review feat/APP-003-... for APP-003")

Then APP-004 launches with ios-developer, in parallel with whatever else is now ready.