Going parallel
Handing work to an agent
Send a task to a background coder that works on its own branch while you keep going.
“/a”
The active plan's next piece of work goes to a background coder.
“/a add pagination to the projects endpoint”
That specific task, handed to a coder, on its own branch.
“Ctrl+D”
Agent Center: what's running, what finished, what it changed.
What an agent is
A separate coder working on one task. By default it gets its own git worktree, so it can't collide with your working tree — or with another agent. You keep typing while it works.
The specialists
Different jobs get different agents. You don't usually pick; the right one is chosen for the task.
| Agent | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Coder | Implementing a change |
| Explorer | Understanding how something works |
| Planner | Breaking a goal into ordered pieces |
| Reviewer | Reading a diff critically |
| Designer | Interface critique and design systems |
| Prototyper | Building working UI, fast |
| Lead | Coordinating the others |
Designing an interface and Building a prototype cover the two you do invoke directly.
Agent Center
CtrlD opens it. Tab moves between four views:
- Runs — everything live and finished, refreshing as it goes.
gpins a run,xtwice stops it,rtwice reruns it fresh,dtwice removes a finished receipt,ctwice cleans finished history into recoverable trash. - Live Grid — up to nine agents at once in a 3×3 view.
aadds work,dunpins a tile. - Launch — start work with the options laid out, and choose whether it lands in the Grid or in Runs.
- Templates — saved setups. They load into Launch for review; they never start on their own.
CtrlE expands and shrinks the panel. Ctrl] closes it.
Permission prompts still come to you
An agent that needs approval asks through your normal prompt queue, tagged with which agent is asking. Work doesn't stall silently waiting for someone to notice.
Agents outlive your terminal
Runs are owned by a per-user daemon that any surface starts on demand. Launch from the terminal, watch from the VS Code Agents tab, close the terminal — the work carries on. Reopen and it's there.
Set CONTEXTCODE_AGENT_DAEMON_AUTOSTART=off if you'd rather that didn't happen.
Reviewing what comes back
Nothing lands in your branch on its own. A finished agent presents its diff and waits for a one-key review merge. See Working on a branch without leaving your session for what merging does.
If it doesn't work
An agent is stuck. Check Runs — it's usually waiting on a permission prompt. Answer it and the run continues.
Two agents changed the same file. They work in separate worktrees, so this surfaces as a merge conflict at landing time, not as corruption. Resolve it where it appears.
I can't find a run I started yesterday. Runs keeps receipts. If you cleaned
history with c, it went to recoverable trash rather than being deleted.