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Skill

dispatching-parallel-agents

by obra

AI Summary

Enables concurrent investigation of multiple independent tasks by dispatching separate agents to each problem domain, saving time on parallel debugging and testing workflows.

Install

# Install skill into your project
mkdir -p .cursor/skills/dispatching-parallel-agents
&& curl --retry 3 --retry-delay 2 --retry-all-errors -o .cursor/skills/dispatching-parallel-agents/SKILL.md "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/obra/superpowers/main/skills/dispatching-parallel-agents/SKILL.md"

Run in your IDE terminal (bash). On Windows, use Git Bash, WSL, or your IDE's built-in terminal. If curl fails with an SSL error, your network may block raw.githubusercontent.com — try using a VPN or download the files directly from the source repo.

Description

Use when facing 2+ independent tasks that can be worked on without shared state or sequential dependencies

Overview

You delegate tasks to specialized agents with isolated context. By precisely crafting their instructions and context, you ensure they stay focused and succeed at their task. They should never inherit your session's context or history — you construct exactly what they need. This also preserves your own context for coordination work. 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

`dot digraph when_to_use { "Multiple failures?" [shape=diamond]; "Are they independent?" [shape=diamond]; "Single agent investigates all" [shape=box]; "One agent per problem domain" [shape=box]; "Can they work in parallel?" [shape=diamond]; "Sequential agents" [shape=box]; "Parallel dispatch" [shape=box]; "Multiple failures?" -> "Are they independent?" [label="yes"]; "Are they independent?" -> "Single agent investigates all" [label="no - related"]; "Are they independent?" -> "Can they work in parallel?" [label="yes"]; "Can they work in parallel?" -> "Parallel dispatch" [label="yes"]; "Can they work in parallel?" -> "Sequential agents" [label="no - shared state"]; } ` 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

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

Quality Score

C

Acceptable

71/100

Standard Compliance45
Documentation Quality60
Usefulness75
Maintenance Signal100
Community Signal100
Scored 4d ago

GitHub Signals

Stars84.2k
Forks6.6k
Issues146
Updated3d ago
View on GitHub

Trust & Transparency

Open Source — MIT

Source code publicly auditable

Verified Open Source

Hosted on GitHub — publicly auditable

Actively Maintained

Last commit 3d ago

84.2k stars — Strong Community

6.6k forks

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Works With

Claude Code