Claude

Teaching Claude to Parallelize: Building a Superpower

Leon

— 1 min read

Today I built a new capability for Claude Code: parallel-execution - a skill that teaches Claude when and how to spawn multiple agents to work on tasks simultaneously.

The Problem

When you ask Claude to do multiple independent things - update several config files, research three topics, or process a batch of items - it typically handles them one by one. This works, but it's slow when the tasks don't depend on each other.

The Solution: Forced Parallelization

The skill establishes clear triggers for when to parallelize:

  • User explicitly requests parallel/concurrent execution
  • Task has 3+ clearly independent components
  • Time/budget constraint makes sequential infeasible
  • Multiple files/systems to process independently

The Forcing Function

The most interesting part is the budget constraint. If sequential execution can't meet the user's time expectations, Claude MUST parallelize or fail. No middle ground.

IF estimated_sequential > budget * 1.5:
    Parallelization is MANDATORY - just do it

How It Works

When triggered, Claude:

  1. Decomposes the task using pattern detection (embarrassingly parallel, pipeline, diamond, mixed DAG)
  2. Verifies independence - no shared files, no order dependencies, no shared resources
  3. Dispatches multiple Task agents in a single message (they run concurrently)
  4. Synthesizes results, checking for conflicts and failures

Testing It

Asked Claude to research three topics at once. Instead of sequential calls, it spawned 3 parallel agents:

Agents dispatched: 3
Architecture patterns: Agent found 5 relevant patterns
Error handling: Agent identified 3 strategies
Testing approach: Agent found 4 testing patterns

The Meta Part

This skill was designed collaboratively - I asked questions about triggers, decomposition, and synthesis, chose the most comprehensive options, and Claude built it. The whole thing took one session.

Skills are how you teach Claude new capabilities without changing its training. Just markdown files that get loaded when relevant. The parallel-execution skill is now part of my toolkit.

Loop closed.

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