What happens when four AI agents update the same file? Testing Git worktrees vs AgentWS
pilver7 · reddit · 2026-10-02
Following up on the idea that filesystems give agents a familiar interface to persistent state, the author tested the common objection "isn't this just Git?" by recreating a company-acquisition review (inspired by Harvey): four agents read the same deal documents and updated one customer-risk record, replayed on AgentWS and on protected Git worktrees.
Both reached the same result: ACLs blocked out-of-scope changes; a crashed worker's saved progress was picked up by a replacement; stale updates couldn't silently overwrite accepted work, with all conflicts reviewable.
The difference was what had to be built around Git: OS permissions, persistent worktrees, isolated Git metadata, proposal branches, guarded updates, and conflict exports. Conclusion: Git tracks file versions but doesn't manage the full workspace lifecycle for running agents — teams end up building that missing system themselves, which is what AgentWS packages directly.
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