AgentSkillsCN

dispatching-parallel-agents

当面临 2 个或以上的独立任务，且这些任务无需共享状态或遵循先后顺序依赖时使用。

SKILL.md
--- frontmatter
name: dispatching-parallel-agents
description: Use when facing 2+ independent tasks that can be worked on without shared state or sequential dependencies

Dispatching Parallel Agents

Overview

When you have multiple unrelated failures (different test files, different subsystems, different bugs), investigating them sequentially wastes time. Each investigation is independent and can happen in parallel.

Core principle: Dispatch one agent per independent problem domain. Let them work concurrently.

When to Use

Use when:

  • •3+ test files failing with different root causes
  • •Multiple subsystems broken independently
  • •Each problem can be understood without context from others
  • •No shared state between investigations

Don't use when:

  • •Failures are related (fix one might fix others)
  • •Need to understand full system state
  • •Agents would interfere with each other

The Pattern

1. Identify Independent Domains

Group failures by what's broken:

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

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

2. Create Focused Agent Tasks

Each agent gets:

  • •Specific scope: One test file or subsystem
  • •Clear goal: Make these tests pass
  • •Constraints: Don't change other code
  • •Expected output: Summary of what you found and fixed

3. Dispatch in Parallel

typescript
// In your environment
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")
// All three run concurrently

4. Review and Integrate

When agents return:

  • •Read each summary
  • •Verify fixes don't conflict
  • •Run full test suite
  • •Integrate all changes

Agent Prompt Structure

Good agent prompts are:

  1. •Focused - One clear problem domain
  2. •Self-contained - All context needed to understand the problem
  3. •Specific about output - What should the agent return?
markdown
Fix the 3 failing tests in src/agents/agent-tool-abort.test.ts:

1. "should abort tool with partial output capture" - expects 'interrupted at' in message
2. "should handle mixed completed and aborted tools" - fast tool aborted instead of completed
3. "should properly track pendingToolCount" - expects 3 results but gets 0

These are timing/race condition issues. Your task:

1. Read the test file and understand what each test verifies
2. Identify root cause - timing issues or actual bugs?
3. Fix by:
   - Replacing arbitrary timeouts with event-based waiting
   - Fixing bugs in abort implementation if found
   - Adjusting test expectations if testing changed behavior

Do NOT just increase timeouts - find the real issue.

Return: Summary of what you found and what you fixed.

Common Mistakes

❌ Too broad: "Fix all the tests" - agent gets lost ✅ Specific: "Fix agent-tool-abort.test.ts" - focused scope

❌ No context: "Fix the race condition" - agent doesn't know where ✅ Context: Paste the error messages and test names

❌ No constraints: Agent might refactor everything ✅ Constraints: "Do NOT change production code" or "Fix tests only"

❌ Vague output: "Fix it" - you don't know what changed ✅ Specific: "Return summary of root cause and changes"

When NOT to Use

Related failures: Fixing one might fix others - investigate together first Need full context: Understanding requires seeing entire system Exploratory debugging: You don't know what's broken yet Shared state: Agents would interfere (editing same files, using same resources)

Real 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:

code
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

Result: All 3 agents found and fixed issues independently. Combined fixes resolved all 6 failures.

Red Flags

Never:

  • •Dispatch agents for related failures (they'll conflict)
  • •Skip the integration step (changes might conflict)
  • •Use without verifying independence

Always:

  • •Verify domains are truly independent
  • •Give each agent focused scope
  • •Review all results before integrating
  • •Run full test suite after integration