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Parallel Component

The <Parallel> component enables concurrent execution of child components. By default, Steps within a Phase execute sequentially—wrap them in Parallel to execute simultaneously.
Experimental. Parallel execution works but has limitations with phase advancement. See limitations section below.

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Basic Usage

import { Phase, Parallel, Step, Claude } from "smithers-orchestrator";

<Phase name="Build">
  <Step name="build-parallel">
    <Parallel>
      <Step name="Frontend">
        <Claude>Build the frontend application.</Claude>
      </Step>
      <Step name="Backend">
        <Claude>Build the backend services.</Claude>
      </Step>
    </Parallel>
  </Step>
</Phase>

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Props

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children
ReactNode
Child components to execute in parallel.

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Examples

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Parallel Build Tasks

<Phase name="Build">
  <Step name="checks">
    <Parallel>
      <Step name="lint">
        <Claude allowedTools={["Bash"]}>
          Run the linter.
        </Claude>
      </Step>
      <Step name="typecheck">
        <Claude allowedTools={["Bash"]}>
          Run TypeScript type checking.
        </Claude>
      </Step>
      <Step name="test">
        <Claude allowedTools={["Bash"]}>
          Run the test suite.
        </Claude>
      </Step>
    </Parallel>
  </Step>
</Phase>

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Mixed Sequential and Parallel

Aspirational example. Sequential Steps before/after Parallel may not sequence as expected with the current implementation. See Known Limitations.
<Phase name="CI">
  <Step name="setup">
    <Claude>Install dependencies.</Claude>
  </Step>
  
  <Step name="checks">
    <Parallel>
      <Step name="lint"><Claude>Run linting.</Claude></Step>
      <Step name="test"><Claude>Run tests.</Claude></Step>
    </Parallel>
  </Step>
  
  <Step name="deploy">
    <Claude>Deploy to production.</Claude>
  </Step>
</Phase>

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With Worktree Isolation

<Parallel>
  <Worktree branch="feature-a">
    <Claude>Implement feature A.</Claude>
  </Worktree>
  <Worktree branch="feature-b">
    <Claude>Implement feature B.</Claude>
  </Worktree>
</Parallel>

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How It Works

The Parallel component wraps children in a StepRegistryProvider with isParallel enabled. This signals to the orchestrator that child Steps should execute concurrently rather than waiting for each to complete before starting the next.

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Known Limitations

Parallel completion semantics are experimental.
  • Steps inside <Parallel> use a separate step registry and don’t participate in the parent phase’s sequential step tracking
  • A Phase containing only <Parallel> Steps may not advance automatically - use Phase onComplete callback for explicit control
  • The “Mixed Sequential and Parallel” example is aspirational - sequential Steps before/after Parallel may not sequence as expected with the current implementation
For reliable phase-based workflows, wrap each Phase’s content in explicit Steps: 
<Phase name="Build" onComplete={() => advanceToNextPhase()}>
  <Step name="parallel-builds">
    <Parallel>
      <Claude>Build frontend</Claude>
      <Claude>Build backend</Claude>
    </Parallel>
  </Step>
</Phase>

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Rendering

The Parallel component renders as a <parallel> element containing its children: 
<parallel>
  <step name="Frontend">...</step>
  <step name="Backend">...</step>
</parallel>

Phase

Group related workflow phases

Step

Sequential workflow steps

Worktree

Git worktree isolation