---
name: coordinate-parallel-agents
description: Coordinate autonomous workers with bounded locks, deduplication, one-use batons, concurrency permits, shared rate gates, barriers, negative-cache tickets, and renewable freshness leases. Use when parallel agents may duplicate work, exceed a concurrency or API quota, race to consume one action, wait for a phase threshold, or need one temporary refresh owner.
---

# Coordinate Parallel Agents

Use the Agent Enhancer Utilities MCP server at
`https://liberated.site/mcp?source=skill-coordinate-parallel-agents`.
Prefer its progressive-discovery sequence:

1. Call `lab.search_tools` with the concrete coordination job.
2. If it returns `NO_MATCH`, do not force a nearby primitive. Offer
   `lab.request_capability` with a bounded, non-sensitive problem statement.
3. Call `lab.describe_tool` for the top candidate.
4. Check input schema, TTL bounds, side effects, retention, errors, and
   `idempotency_required`.
5. Invoke only when the user asked to perform the coordination action. If the
   user asked for analysis or a design, stop after recommending the contract.

## Choose the primitive

- Use `penny-lock` when one worker may briefly own an opaque task and peers can
  safely stand down.
- Use `global-seen-stamp` when workers only need to know whether an opaque
  content hash was already processed.
- Use `exactly-once-baton` to issue and consume one short-lived capability.
  It does not make the underlying business operation transactional.
- Use `negative-cache-ticket` to share a temporary typed lookup failure.
- Use `swarm-semaphore` to cap concurrent holders above one.
- Use `swarm-rate-gate` to share a token budget across workers or processes.
  `consume` atomically spends the requested token amount at most once;
  `status` observes the gate without consuming.
- Use `barrier-bell` to release a phase after a threshold of unique arrivals.
- Use `freshness-lease` when one worker should renew a temporary refresh
  responsibility.

Do not substitute a TTL primitive for a durable audit log, permanent ownership,
or a database transaction around the real operation.

## Run the 60-second activation check

For a first connection, use this bounded test before real coordination work:

1. Search for the smallest tool that lets one worker own an opaque task for 60
   seconds, then describe the selected contract.
2. Generate one private workflow namespace as
   `quickstart:<fresh UUID-v4>`. Acquire the lock with that namespace, key
   `task-001`, owner `agent-a`, TTL 60 seconds, and a separate fresh UUID-v4
   idempotency key.
3. Repeat the identical invocation with the same idempotency key.
4. Confirm the first result reports `acquired: true` and the retry replays the
   same lock hash without another execution.

If the response is lost, retry the identical normalized input with that same
idempotency key. Never reuse the key with changed input.

## Invoke safely

- Send only opaque identifiers. Never send credentials, personal data, raw
  document contents, customer records, or secrets as namespace, key, owner,
  holder, participant, or reason fields.
- Format every coordination namespace as `<scope>:<fresh UUID-v4>`. Generate it
  once per independent workflow, share it only with participating agents, and
  reuse it across that workflow's related calls. Never use a human-readable
  project name alone because unrelated callers could collide.
- For a side-effecting tool, generate one stable `idempotency_key` of 16–128
  letters, numbers, underscores, or hyphens. Reuse it only for recovery of the
  same normalized request.
- For `swarm-rate-gate`, keep the outer `idempotency_key` stable only while
  recovering the same MCP attempt. A completed insufficient-token response is
  replayed under that outer key, so after `retry_after_ms` use a new outer key
  while keeping the same inner `operation_key`. A successful inner operation
  key deduplicates later consumption. Never reuse either key for changed work.
- The first successful rate-gate consume fixes its capacity, refill cadence,
  and TTL. Treat a configuration mismatch as a caller bug; do not probe by
  changing those values.
- Choose the shortest practical TTL inside the described limits.
- Treat a successful lock, lease, permit, or baton result as coordination state,
  not proof that downstream work completed.
- Preserve the returned opaque hash and expiry for logs; do not attempt to list
  holders or reverse hashes.

## Recover predictably

- `INVALID_INPUT`: correct the request against the described schema.
- `IDEMPOTENCY_KEY_REQUIRED`: add a valid stable key.
- `IDEMPOTENCY_CONFLICT`: never change the body under the old key; use a new
  logical operation.
- `EXECUTION_IN_PROGRESS`: retry the identical request with the same key.
- `RATE_LIMITED`: wait for `Retry-After`.
- `TOOL_PAUSED` or `DEPENDENCY_UNAVAILABLE`: stop side effects and retry later.
- `NO_MATCH`: abstain and use the missing-capability path.

If MCP is unavailable, use `GET https://liberated.site/v1/catalog?intent=...`,
then `GET /v1/tools/{slug}`, and finally `POST /v1/tools/{slug}` with the same
idempotency rules.