Running Coding Agents in Parallel with Git Worktrees

A developer describes using Git worktrees to run multiple coding agents in parallel without file conflicts. The approach creates separate working directories for each agent, all backed by the same repository, allowing simultaneous work on different branches and direct merges without pushing or pulling. The developer notes that Git itself serves as the communication mechanism between agents, while GitHub remains useful for human review and CI.

I kept hitting the same wall with coding agents. One Claude Code or Codex session in a repo works great. The moment I wanted two tasks moving at once - login in one terminal, payments in another - they started stepping on each other. Same working directory, same checked-out branch, two processes editing the same files. Chaos. The fix turned out to be a Git feature that has been sitting there for years: git worktree . It gives you several working directories backed by the same repository . Each folder has its own checked-out branch, but all of them share the same objects, commits and branch list. From your main checkout: git worktree add ../integration -b integration main git worktree add ../feature-login -b feature/login main git worktree add ../feature-payments -b feature/payments main Which leaves you with something like: project/ ├── main/ → branch main ├── integration/ → branch integration ├── feature-login/ → branch feature/login └── feature-payments/ → branch feature/payments Now every agent gets its own folder. One terminal per worktree, one agent per terminal, and nobody touches anybody else's files: cd feature-login agent 1 works here cd feature-payments agent 2 works here, at the same time My first instinct was: agent finishes login, pushes the branch, then I pull it into integration. That's the muscle memory from working in a team. It's unnecessary here. All the worktrees belong to the same repository on the same machine, so Git already knows every branch locally. When agent 1 finishes: cd feature-login git add . git commit -m "feat: implement login" ...the integration worktree can merge it directly: cd ../integration git merge feature/login git merge feature/payments npm test No git push , no git pull . The directories are different, but feature/login and integration are branches of the same repo. When integration is green: cd ../main git merge integration You don't even have to wait for a worktree to be deleted before merging its branch. Both folders can exist at the same time. The only thing Git refuses is having the same branch checked out in two worktrees at once - which is exactly the protection you want when agents are involved. When a feature is done, resist the rm -rf : git worktree remove ../feature-login git branch -d feature/login git worktree remove deletes the folder and cleans Git's internal registry. If you already nuked the folder by hand, git worktree prune fixes the bookkeeping after the fact. The full cycle for one task ends up being: git worktree add ../feature-login -b feature/login main create cd ../feature-login agent works, commits cd ../integration && git merge feature/login && npm test integrate git worktree remove ../feature-login discard workspace git branch -d feature/login discard branch For the agents to collaborate on one machine: nowhere. Git itself is the communication mechanism. GitHub earns its place the moment humans enter the loop - PRs, review, CI, an audit trail: cd feature-login git push -u origin feature/login open a PR from this And if you want integration to merge exactly what's on the remote rather than the local branch: git fetch origin git merge origin/feature/login I now think of it as two separate planes. Locally: worktree → commit → merge into integration → tests. Remotely: push → PR → review → CI. The second plane is for people; the first one is where the agents actually work. The detail that sold me on the whole thing: the integration agent never copies code from the other agents, never reads their folders, doesn't even know they exist. It only knows their branch names. Git was the message bus all along. Worktrees isolate files and branches. They don't isolate runtime. The moment two agents each run npm run dev and a Playwright suite, they all reach for :3000, the same test database, and a surprising amount of RAM per headless browser. The workaround I use today is boring: each worktree gets its own port through an env file written at creation time, and Playwright reads it for its baseURL: echo "PORT=3101" ../feature-login/.env.local echo "PORT=3102" ../feature-payments/.env.local But ports are only the visible part of the problem. Isolating test databases, keeping three browser suites from eating the machine, and deciding whether integration should be the only worktree allowed to run E2E at all - that deserves a post of its own. It's the next one I'm writing.