# Dispatching Parallel Agents

> Use when more than one piece of work sits in front of you and they don't touch the same files — separate failing tests, unrelated bugs, parallel research threads. Skip when one task needs another's output (sequence them with executing-plans), or when there's just one thing to do.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-njoyimpeguy-augments-dispatching-parallel-agents`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [NjoyimPeguy](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/njoyimpeguy)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [AI & ML](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/ai-and-ml)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [NjoyimPeguy](https://github.com/NjoyimPeguy)
- **Source:** https://github.com/NjoyimPeguy/augments/tree/main/skills/common/dispatching-parallel-agents

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-njoyimpeguy-augments-dispatching-parallel-agents
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Dispatching Parallel Agents

Run independent work concurrently instead of in series. The win is wall-clock; the risk is collision — so this applies only when the pieces genuinely don't touch each other.

## When to use

- Two or more pieces of work that are **provably independent**: disjoint files, disjoint state, and no "B needs A's result."
- **Skip** when tasks share a file or dependency (sequence them — `executing-plans`), when one needs another's output, or when the whole thing is quick inline.

## The independence test — confirm before fanning out

Check every pair; if any fails, group them into one agent or sequence them instead:

- **Files** — they edit disjoint paths. Two agents on the same file race.
- **State** — disjoint ports, databases, fixtures. If they run a server or migrations, isolate each (`using-task-branches`).
- **Order** — none consumes another's output. A dependency is a sequence, not a fan-out.

## The dispatch packet (per agent)

Each agent starts cold — hand it everything, never your session history:

- **Scope** — the exact problem and files this agent owns, and what it must NOT touch.
- **Objective + deliverable** — what "done" means, and the precise shape to report back, so results reconcile.
- **Constraints** — name the tier to run at (omit it and the agent silently inherits the session's costliest one), the quality rules, and "stay in scope; report out-of-scope rather than reaching."
- **Isolation** — if it builds or runs anything, its own workspace/port/DB.

Two ways to hand over context, and the choice matters: **paste** the small, authoritative thing the agent must start from verbatim — its task contract, the exact spec — so it works from a known snapshot; pass **bulky reference** — a diff, a log, a large file — as a **path the agent reads**, since a paste sits in the most expensive context for the whole run while a path costs nothing until opened. Paste what *defines* the task; point at what merely *informs* it.

## Reconcile (the coordinator's job, not the agents')

When agents return: read each deliverable, integrate them yourself, then run the **combined** check — the tests across all the changes together. N green agents do not prove the whole is green. Surface any agent that reported blocked or out-of-scope rather than papering over it.

## Common mistakes

- Fanning out work that shares a file or an ordering — the race corrupts both.
- Passing session history instead of a self-contained packet — the agent inherits your blind spots.
- No combined check — independently-green changes can still break together.
- Parallel agents sharing one dev server or database — isolate each (`using-task-branches`).

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [NjoyimPeguy](https://github.com/NjoyimPeguy)
- **Source:** [NjoyimPeguy/augments](https://github.com/NjoyimPeguy/augments)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-njoyimpeguy-augments-dispatching-parallel-agents
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/njoyimpeguy
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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