Design shared-state control before parallel agent work.

Video caption

Design shared-state control before parallel agent work.

Scope and handoff must survive its session.

Branch passes do not compose automatically.

My rule: Watch integration debt, not agent activity.

#EricFieldNotes

Full written post / accessibility read

Worktrees are the first rule for a personal agent fleet, but not the last. Two agents can change different files and still implement incompatible interpretations of a product decision. A useful fleet needs role ownership, source-backed messages, durable state and a trusted merge gate.

Assign one worktree, allowed files, acceptance fixture and escalation condition. The agent records source, change, evidence, uncertainty and owner in a durable packet. A supervising agent can monitor progress and relay new facts without flooding every worker's context, but it must not invent authority.

Suppose one branch changes API entitlements and another changes a default flag. Both local suites pass. On the merged artifact, run the protected customer-decision fixture and a deliberate negative control. Bind status to that merge digest and have one integrator approve the product interaction.

My rule: worktrees isolate edits, sourced messages align assumptions, and a separately controlled merge gate validates the combined build. Do this because parallel agents raise throughput only when shared decisions and product outcomes survive integration.

#EricFieldNotes

Four-beat scene transcript

1. Design shared-state control before parallel agent work.

Worktrees are the first rule for a personal agent fleet, but not the last. Two agents can change different files and still implement incompatible interpretations of a product decision. A useful fleet needs role ownership, source-backed messages, durable state and a trusted merge gate.

Visual: Concurrency moves conflict from files to decisions.

2. Give each agent a bounded contract.

Assign one worktree, allowed files, acceptance fixture and escalation condition. The agent records source, change, evidence, uncertainty and owner in a durable packet. A supervising agent can monitor progress and relay new facts without flooding every worker's context, but it must not invent authority.

Visual: Scope and handoff must survive its session.

3. Re-evaluate at merge.

Suppose one branch changes API entitlements and another changes a default flag. Both local suites pass. On the merged artifact, run the protected customer-decision fixture and a deliberate negative control. Bind status to that merge digest and have one integrator approve the product interaction.

Visual: Branch passes do not compose automatically.

4. Scale by accepted combinations.

My rule: worktrees isolate edits, sourced messages align assumptions, and a separately controlled merge gate validates the combined build. Do this because parallel agents raise throughput only when shared decisions and product outcomes survive integration.

Visual: Watch integration debt, not agent activity.

Research and claim limits

• OpenAI Agents SDK/Codex orchestration example (S07)
• GitHub Docs: ruleset required status checks (S146)

The examples identified as illustrative or simulated are design probes, not reported incidents. Vendor specifications do not establish workload performance.