Conflicts

A conflict is two live agents in the same file. Coordigent tells both agents and shows the conflict to the people in the project, so it gets sorted out before merge time instead of at it.

#When a conflict happens

A conflict starts when two live agents in one repo have both edited the same file. The agents can be yours or a teammate's, in the same checkout or in different worktrees of the repo. Each conflict names the two agents and the files they share; if they go on to share more files, those are added to the same conflict.

Coordigent works to stop conflicts before they start. An agent about to edit a file another agent holds is warned first (see Files in use). A conflict is what happens when both edit it anyway. Coordigent never blocks an edit.

On one machine, conflicts are found without an account. With a login, the server also finds them across your teammates' machines.

#How you are warned

• Your agent. Each agent in the conflict gets a warning in its context at its next hook, naming the other agent and the files. Coordigent's notices to an agent use one shape: a ⚠ COORD: line saying what happened, then a → line saying what to do. In a coordigent.* tool result the notice comes first, as a banner.
• CLI. coord status prints a ⚠ CONFLICT line for each shared file, naming both agents, and a → line saying what to do. Conflicts are always shown, even when other rows are folded into +N more idle. coord sessions prints one ⚠ CONFLICT line per pair of agents. The live view's header turns to ⚠ and counts conflicts, and the Claude Code statusline adds · N ⚠.
• VS Code. The conflict is listed under each agent, and a file two agents hold reads Conflict · 2 agents in Files in use.
• Website. Open conflicts appear on the project's pages and on both agents' records.
• Slack. If the project mirrors to Slack, each conflict gets its own post. See Slack.

#What to do

1. Message the other agent. Agree who changes what. Your agent can do this itself with coordigent.message.send; you can do it with coord msg <agent> "text". See Messages.
2. Hand the work over. If one agent should finish both changes, end the other and pass its context on. See Handoffs.
3. Wait. Let one agent finish and end; the other carries on after.

#How a conflict ends

A conflict is resolved on its own when either agent ends. You can also dismiss it from the website, or resolve it from its Slack post with the Resolve button or a ✅ reaction; resolving in Slack also tells both agents to coordinate before they resume.

#Duplicate work

Sometimes two agents are not in the same file yet but are doing the same thing. When two live agents in one repo start from prompts that look alike, each gets one note:

The match is a keyword comparison of the two prompts. It runs on your machine, and with a login the server also compares your agents with your teammates' in the same repo. Each pair is told once. If the two agents then edit the same file, the conflict warning is what they hear: a note still waiting is dropped, and the conflict warning adds "Your tasks also looked alike." when both arrive together. coord sessions marks such agents ⚠ similar to <ids>.

#Next

• Messages
• Handoffs
• MCP tools