/dispatching-parallel-agents

name: dispatching-parallel-agents
description: Dispatches one subagent per independent domain to parallelize investigation/fixes. Use when you have 2+ unrelated failures (e.g., separate failing test files, subsystems, bugs) with no shared state or ordering dependencies.

Dispatching Parallel Agents

Dispatch one agent per independent problem. Let them work concurrently.

Dispatch Workflow

Copy and track:

- [ ] 1. Identify independent domains
- [ ] 2. Create focused agent tasks
- [ ] 3. Dispatch in parallel
- [ ] 4. Review and integrate

1. Identify Independent Domains

Group failures by what's broken:

• File A tests: Tool approval flow
• File B tests: Batch completion
• File C tests: Abort functionality

Each domain is independent—fixing tool approval doesn't affect abort tests.

**Critical check:** If fixing one might fix others → investigate together first (don't parallelize).

2. Create Focused Agent Tasks

Each agent needs:

• **Scope:** One test file or subsystem
• **Goal:** Make these tests pass
• **Constraints:** Don't change unrelated code
• **Output:** Summary of findings and fixes

3. Dispatch in Parallel

Example (Claude Code):

Task("Fix agent-tool-abort.test.ts failures")
Task("Fix batch-completion-behavior.test.ts failures")
Task("Fix tool-approval-race-conditions.test.ts failures")

4. Review and Integrate

1. Read each agent's summary 2. Check for conflicts (same files edited?)

• If two agents touched the same file → stop and re-scope (one owner per file)

3. Run full test suite 4. If failures:

• Check for merge conflicts → resolve manually
• If no conflicts → investigate as new failures

5. Repeat until green

Agent Prompt Template

Fix the [N] failing tests in [file path]:

1. "[test name]" - [error summary]
2. "[test name]" - [error summary]

Context: [relevant background, e.g., "These are timing/race condition issues"]

Your task:
1. Read the test file, understand what each test verifies
2. Identify root cause—timing issues or actual bugs?
3. Fix by [preferred approach, e.g., "replacing arbitrary timeouts with event-based waiting"]

Do NOT: [anti-patterns, e.g., "just increase timeouts—find the real issue"]

Return: Summary of root cause and changes made.

Common Mistakes

| ❌ Bad | ✅ Good | |--------|---------| | "Fix all the tests" | "Fix agent-tool-abort.test.ts" | | "Fix the race condition" | Paste error messages + test names | | No constraints | "Do NOT change production code" | | "Fix it" | "Return summary of root cause and changes" |

Example

**Scenario:** 6 test failures across 3 files after major refactoring.

**Failures:**

• agent-tool-abort.test.ts: 3 failures (timing issues)
• batch-completion-behavior.test.ts: 2 failures (tools not executing)
• tool-approval-race-conditions.test.ts: 1 failure (execution count = 0)

**Decision:** Independent domains—abort logic separate from batch completion separate from race conditions.

**Dispatch:**

Agent 1 → Fix agent-tool-abort.test.ts
Agent 2 → Fix batch-completion-behavior.test.ts
Agent 3 → Fix tool-approval-race-conditions.test.ts

**Results:**

• Agent 1: Replaced timeouts with event-based waiting
• Agent 2: Fixed event structure bug (threadId in wrong place)
• Agent 3: Added wait for async tool execution

**Integration:** All fixes independent, no conflicts, full suite green.