Coordigent vs git worktrees alone
A git worktree per AI coding agent hides conflicting edits until merge. Coordigent shows the conflict while the agents are still working.
Worktrees alone
one checkout per agent
Coordigent
one context for every agent
Short answer
Short answer: Giving each coding agent its own git worktree stops agents from overwriting each other's files on disk, but it does not stop them changing the same code. Two agents on two branches can both rewrite
src/api.ts, and nobody finds out until the second merge conflicts. Coordigent counts all of a repo's worktrees as one repo, records which files each agent is editing, and warns an agent before it edits a file another agent holds. Worktrees separate the checkouts; Coordigent tells the agents in them what the others are doing.
What worktrees solve, and what they leave
| Problem | Worktrees alone | With Coordigent | Margin note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two agents writing the same file on disk at once | Solved: each has its own checkout | Solved the same way, plus a warning | |
| Two agents changing the same code on different branches | Found at merge time | Warned before the second edit lands | before, not at merge |
| One agent changing a function another agent is calling | Found when tests or the merge fail | The first agent can message the others when it changes the signature | they can talk |
| Knowing which agent is working on what | Read each branch's diff | One live list in the terminal, VS Code, the website or Slack | |
| A teammate's agents on another machine | Invisible | Shown alongside yours once you are logged in | not invisible |
| An agent running out of context mid-task | Start over | The next agent gets a handoff | a handoff, not a blank page |
Plate I. Worktrees alone and With Coordigent, side by side; red marks where Coordigent differs.
How it works with worktrees
Keep using worktrees: git worktree add, claude --worktree, Conductor or Claude Squad. When an agent in any worktree edits a file, Coordigent records that it holds the file for 15 minutes after its last edit. Another agent about to edit the same path, in any worktree of the repo, gets this in its context first:
⚠ COORD: src/api.ts is being edited by b7e1 (claude, branch feat/b) 2m ago
→ b7e1 has this file (since 9m ago). Wait, work elsewhere, or message them: coordigent.message.send { to: "b7e1" }Nothing is locked. The agent decides, and you see the same warning in coord status. Details: Files in use and Conflicts.
Set up
curl -fsSL https://coordigent.com/install | sh