Parallel Work Lanes

Use concurrency where independent work repays startup and integration overhead. A faster wall clock is not automatically lower total token usage. Follow actual repository and harness rules; keep a single lane when there is no useful separation, and choose worker count from independent outcomes rather than available slots.

Keep each worker's context local to its question. Share relevant constraints and interface decisions once, not whole transcripts or all skill bodies. Return findings with source pointers and actual evidence. Do not have the parent repeat every reader's survey or recursively delegate a bounded lookup. Integrate consequential results and stop redundant work when its question is resolved.

Find real independence

For each lane, name the outcome, owned source area, dependencies, checks, and who integrates it. Path separation alone is insufficient: look for shared interfaces, generated clients, schemas, dependency files, fixtures, resource pools, and lifecycle assumptions.

Assign shared surfaces to one owner or land a small common foundation first. A lane must not guess another lane's unfinished contract. Respect a repository's serial-writer requirement without generating a policy-change PR just to enable this task. Parallel read-only research may still be useful where permitted.

Use separate working directories or worktrees when available and appropriate. Ensure commands act in the intended workspace. Preserve unrelated changes and avoid simultaneous broad builds or benchmarks competing for the same resources. Do not require agents to have particular role names.

Integrate deliberately

Give writers bounded briefs and have them return changed areas, actual validation, and interface assumptions. Combine their work through the repository's normal delivery path. One final PR, multiple independent PRs, or a temporary integration branch are options—not compulsory infrastructure.

The integration owner may resolve routine authorized conflicts and small glue changes, then test and review the combined behavior. Revisit affected lanes when integration changes their assumptions. Stop for a consequential contract decision or incompatible design; do not silently invent the missing architecture at merge time.

Run checks that exercise the combined path, not just each lane in isolation. Keep unrun platform or release qualification visible. Lane completion does not prove the integrated result works.

Close cleanly

Report combined outcomes, remaining conflicts, evidence, and next action. Commit, merge, or close remote PRs only within the user's authority. Remove only task-owned temporary resources when cleanup is authorized; do not delete worktrees that still contain useful or unrelated work.

An optional lane note is available when a handoff needs it. No formal record is required for a short collaboration.