Parallel Investigate

parallel-investigate

Default mode when the same diagnostic question applies to ≥3 independent targets.

When to use

• "Check status of all open PRs" → 1 agent per repo
• "Which of these N services is failing?" → 1 agent per service
• "Audit X across the workspace" → 1 agent per dir
• Any question of shape "for each Y, tell me Z"

When NOT to use

• Targets share state (e.g. monorepo packages with cross-deps) — sequential investigation finds cascades
• N < 3 — overhead of agent spawning exceeds the wall-clock saving
• The investigation needs human-in-the-loop decision between steps — sequential

Recipe

1. Identify the targets list (PRs, repos, services).
2. In a SINGLE message, fire one Agent call per target, all in the same tool-use block. Use the explore agent for read-only investigations.
3. Each agent gets a tight prompt: "Report X about target Y. Return: ."
4. Roll up results into a single table.

Example prompt for each agent

Target: <repo or PR identifier>
Task: <one specific question>
Return format:
  - State: <enum>
  - Top finding: <one line>
  - Smallest next step: <one line>
Time budget: 2 minutes. Bail if you can't answer in that.

Output

Single table or bulleted list per target. Then one summary line: "N/M green, K need action, J blocked."

Stop conditions

• One agent returning takes >5 min while others returned → cut it, surface partial table
• Parallel fan-out exceeds 8 agents → batch into 8-at-a-time waves

Anti-pattern

Sequential gh pr view PR1 && gh pr view PR2 && gh pr view PR3 ... — this is the workflow this skill replaces.