Engineering leadership
How do I prevent multiple AI agents from building the same feature?
Coordinate before execution. Give every work item one accountable owner, keep its lifecycle state current, and search for overlapping work before an agent starts.
Prevent overlap before code exists
A queue is not enough when several tickets describe the same intent. Keep tasks linked to a shared requirement or project, and make ownership and in-flight state visible to every agent.
Before an agent starts work, search active artifacts for the same outcome and inspect sibling work under the same parent. Merge or coordinate overlapping work items before implementation begins.
One accountable owner
Assign each work item an owner and keep its lifecycle state current, so an agent can see what is already in progress.
Shared visibility
Search active work by outcome, and inspect owners and sibling tasks before implementation starts.
Detect duplicated intent
Intent duplication means two artifacts promise nearly the same outcome.
Helen’s Foundry checks the workspace for overlapping work. Reviewers can merge scope or confirm that the similarity is intentional.
Do not over-centralize
Parallel work is useful when boundaries are explicit. The goal is not one agent at a time; it is one accountable owner for each piece of intent.