---
title: "dispatching-parallel-agents skill: fix independent bugs at once"
canonical_url: https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/dispatching-parallel-agents
last_updated: 2026-10-02T01:58:30+02:00
type: skill
summary: "Dispatching Parallel Agents is an agent skill from Superpowers: when several problems are independent, your agent sends a focused subagent to each at once, then checks the results together."
install: "/plugin install superpowers@claude-plugins-official"
related:
  - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/mattpocock/grill-me"
  - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/brainstorming"
  - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/diagnosing-superpowers"
  - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/executing-plans"
  - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/finishing-a-development-branch"
  - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/receiving-code-review"
  - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/requesting-code-review"
  - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/subagent-driven-development"
---

# Dispatching Parallel Agents

Dispatching Parallel Agents is an agent skill from Superpowers: when several problems are independent, your agent sends a focused subagent to each at once, then checks the results together.

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Jesse Vincent |
| Source | https://github.com/obra/superpowers/tree/HEAD/skills/dispatching-parallel-agents |
| License | MIT |
| Repository stars | 293,976 on 2026-10-02 |
| Skill name | dispatching-parallel-agents |
| Category | Planning and agent workflow |
| Skill last changed | 2026-07-24 |
| Page updated | 2026-10-02 |
| Facts checked | 2026-10-02 |

## Install

In Claude Code, install the whole Superpowers plugin from Anthropic's official marketplace:

```
/plugin install superpowers@claude-plugins-official
```

Or install only this skill with the skills CLI:

```
npx skills add obra/superpowers --skill dispatching-parallel-agents
```

## Ask your coding agent

A skill can include scripts that run on your computer, so read its source first: https://github.com/obra/superpowers/tree/HEAD/skills/dispatching-parallel-agents

```text
Install the agent skill dispatching-parallel-agents from github.com/obra/superpowers.
```

## What it does

Dispatching Parallel Agents is one of the skills in Superpowers, Jesse Vincent's open-source method for AI coding agents. It loads when there are two or more independent tasks that share no state and do not depend on each other, such as test failures in different files or bugs in separate subsystems. Instead of investigating them one after another, the agent gives each problem its own subagent, and they work at the same time.

In Dispatching Parallel Agents, each subagent gets a prompt the agent writes for it, never the session's own history: one test file or subsystem as its scope, a clear goal, constraints such as not changing other code, and the summary it must return. The skill contrasts vague prompts ("fix all the tests") with focused ones that paste in the error messages and test names. All dispatches go out in the same response, which is what makes them run in parallel.

Dispatching Parallel Agents also says when not to use it: failures that are related, problems that need the whole system in view, exploratory debugging where the cause is still unknown, and work where agents would edit the same files. When the subagents return, the agent reads each summary, checks that the fixes do not conflict, runs the full test suite, and spot-checks the changes, since agents can make systematic errors.

## When to use it

- You have several failing tests in different files that look unrelated.
- You have separate parts of your project that broke at the same time and want them fixed in parallel, not one by one.
- You want your main agent's context kept free for coordination while other agents do the digging.

## When to pick something else

- The failures are related or the cause is unknown: use Systematic Debugging.
- You are carrying out a written plan task by task: use Subagent-Driven Development.

## Which agents it works in

Jesse Vincent documents it for Claude Code, Codex (app and CLI), Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, OpenCode, Antigravity, Devin CLI, Factory Droid, Grok Build CLI, Kimi Code, Pi, Qwen Code, Hermes Agent, Muse. The open skills CLI also installs it into 78 agents (listed with the CLI on 2026-10-01).

Superpowers is written in Claude Code's vocabulary (subagent dispatch, todos, the Skill tool) and ships tool mappings for Codex, Gemini CLI, Pi, Antigravity, Hermes Agent and Muse. Installed as the full plugin, a session-start hook loads Using Superpowers so the agent reaches for skills on its own; one skill installed with the skills CLI gets no hook and may point to sibling skills you do not have. This skill needs a subagent tool: Claude Code's Agent tool, or in Codex the multi-agent feature switched on in config.toml (multi_agent = true).

## License

MIT.

## Related

### Related skills for planning and agent workflow

- [Grill me](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/mattpocock/grill-me): grill-me is Matt Pocock's agent skill that turns your agent into a relentless interviewer, asking numbered rounds of questions about a plan or design until every decision is settled.
- [Brainstorming](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/brainstorming): Brainstorming is an agent skill from Superpowers that makes your coding agent work out what you want and agree a design with you before it writes any code.
- [Diagnosing Superpowers](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/diagnosing-superpowers): Diagnosing Superpowers is an agent skill from Superpowers that reads a session's transcripts when work went wrong and reports what happened, with every finding tied to a file and line.
- [Executing Plans](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/executing-plans): Executing Plans is an agent skill from Superpowers in which your agent works through a written plan itself, task by task with tests, then gets one fresh review of the whole branch.

### More from Jesse Vincent

- [Finishing a Development Branch](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/finishing-a-development-branch): Finishing a Development Branch is an agent skill from Superpowers: when work is done, your agent runs the tests, offers to merge, open a pull request or keep the branch, then cleans up.
- [Receiving Code Review](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/receiving-code-review): Receiving Code Review is an agent skill from Superpowers: your agent checks review feedback against the code before acting, pushes back with reasons when it is wrong, and skips the flattery.
- [Requesting Code Review](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/requesting-code-review): Requesting Code Review is an agent skill from Superpowers: your agent sends its changes to a separate reviewer subagent that checks them against the plan and grades each issue by severity.
- [Subagent-Driven Development](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/subagent-driven-development): Subagent-Driven Development is an agent skill from Superpowers: your agent carries out a plan by giving each task to a fresh subagent, reviewing every task, then reviewing the whole branch.

