Parallel agents stuck queueing on a single test database as scale grows

Clean-Vermicelli-700 · reddit · 2026-09-14

The author runs parallel sub-agents that branch the main repo, update code, run a shared test suite, then submit work for review. He insists agents add their own tests to the suite, since it's the only reliable way to detect cross-component breakage.

With only one dev database, he uses a lock so just one test run executes at a time; idle agents queue their turn. As he scales the system, the wait list grows into a serious bottleneck.

Duplicating the dev database per agent seems excessive but is the only alternative he sees, so he's asking the community for cleverer solutions.

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