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1+---
2+summary: "Run parallel specialist agents without clogging shared model and tool capacity"
3+title: "Parallel specialist lanes"
4+sidebarTitle: "Specialist lanes"
5+read_when:
6+ - You route group chats to dedicated agents
7+ - You want parallel work without one long task blocking every chat
8+ - You are designing a multi-agent operations setup
9+status: active
10+---
11+12+Parallel specialist lanes let one Gateway route different chats or rooms to
13+different agents, while keeping the user experience fast. The trick is to treat
14+parallelism as a scarce-resource design problem, not just as "more agents".
15+16+## First principles
17+18+A specialist lane only improves throughput when it reduces contention for the
19+real bottlenecks:
20+21+- **Session locks**: only one run should mutate a given session at a time.
22+- **Global model capacity**: all visible chat runs still share provider limits.
23+- **Tool capacity**: shell, browser, network, and repository work can be slower
24+ than the model turn itself.
25+- **Context budget**: long transcripts make every future turn slower and less
26+ focused.
27+- **Ownership ambiguity**: duplicate agents doing the same job waste capacity.
28+29+OpenClaw already serializes runs per session and caps global parallelism through
30+the [command queue](/concepts/queue). Specialist lanes add policy on top:
31+which agent owns which work, what stays in chat, and what becomes background
32+work.
33+34+## Recommended rollout
35+36+### Phase 1: lane contracts + background heavy work
37+38+Give every lane a written contract in its workspace and system prompt:
39+40+- **Purpose**: the work this lane owns.
41+- **Non-goals**: work it should hand off instead of attempting.
42+- **Chat budget**: quick answers stay in chat; long tasks should acknowledge
43+ briefly, then run in a background sub-agent or task.
44+- **Handoff rule**: when another lane owns the work, say where it should go and
45+ provide a compact handoff summary.
46+- **Tool-risk rule**: prefer the smallest tool surface that can do the job.
47+48+This is the cheapest phase and fixes most clogging: one coding job no longer
49+turns the research lane into molasses, and each chat keeps its own context clean.
50+51+### Phase 2: priority and concurrency controls
52+53+Tune queue and model capacity around the business value of each lane:
54+55+```json5
56+{
57+ agents: {
58+ defaults: {
59+ maxConcurrent: 4,
60+ subagents: { maxConcurrent: 8 },
61+ },
62+ },
63+ messages: {
64+ queue: {
65+ mode: "collect",
66+ debounceMs: 1000,
67+ cap: 20,
68+ drop: "summarize",
69+ },
70+ },
71+}
72+```
73+74+Use direct/personal chats and production-ops agents for high-priority work. Let
75+research, drafting, and batch coding move to background tasks when the system is
76+busy.
77+78+### Phase 3: coordinator / traffic controller
79+80+Add a small coordinator pattern once multiple lanes are active:
81+82+- Track active lane tasks and owners.
83+- Detect duplicate requests across groups.
84+- Route handoff summaries between lanes.
85+- Surface only blockers, completed results, and decisions the human must make.
86+87+Do not start here. A coordinator without lane contracts just coordinates chaos.
88+89+## Minimal lane contract template
90+91+```md
92+# Lane contract
93+94+## Owns
95+96+- <job this lane is responsible for>
97+98+## Does not own
99+100+- <work to hand off>
101+102+## Chat budget
103+104+- Answer quick questions directly.
105+- For multi-step, slow, or tool-heavy work: acknowledge briefly, spawn/background
106+ the work, then return the result when complete.
107+108+## Handoff
109+110+If another lane owns the request, reply with:
111+112+- target lane
113+- objective
114+- relevant context
115+- exact next action
116+117+## Tool posture
118+119+Use the smallest tool surface that can complete the task. Avoid broad shell or
120+network work unless this lane explicitly owns it.
121+```
122+123+## Related
124+125+- [Multi-agent routing](/concepts/multi-agent)
126+- [Command queue](/concepts/queue)
127+- [Sub-agents](/tools/subagents)
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