Concurrent coding agents
Firebender offers simple primitives to do this:| Isolation | When to use | |
|---|---|---|
| Tabs | None (same directory) | Lightweight and good for changes in completely different files, or for read-only operations like exploring the codebase |
| Parallel agents | Full (worktrees) | Independent features/PRs that can have conflicts and you don’t want affecting your cwd. Auto heals from conflicts from the configured base |
| Subagents | Managed by AI | Complex tasks where you want Firebender to delegate focused work in separate contexts |
Zone of productivity.
Common pitfalls
Parallelization overhead
Problem: Conflicts, higher error rates, and context-switching costs can eat into productivity gains. Solution:- Use Parallel agents for isolated changes that auto-heal merge conflicts from base
- Use Subagents when you want the main agent to delegate focused work in parallel
- Prefer smaller, narrowly-scoped tasks: they have the highest merge rate and lowest context-switching cost
- Subagents: create focused callable agents for operational tasks like verification, PR review, or doc sync
Focused subagents scoped to specific tasks dramatically improve accuracy. Create your own with
/agent or see Subagents.Staying in flow
Problem: Managing AI agents can feel like being an engineering manager: frequent context switches, waiting on slow responses, and forgetting your original intent (“doorway effect”). Solution:- Write, Ask, and Plan modes: switch between implementation, read-only exploration, and planning as the task evolves
- Plan mode: AI researches approaches and asks clarifying questions before coding
- GLM 4.7 and GPT-5.2: fast agentic models for quick iteration
- Commands: quickly insert pre-written prompts or task descriptions you use often
Use
/help to quickly create a command based on a previous chat. See Commands.