dmux Workflows Orchestrate parallel AI agent sessions using dmux, a tmux pane manager for agent harnesses. When to Activate Running multiple agent sessions in parallel Coordinating work across Claude Code, Codex, and other harnesses Complex tasks that benefit from divide-and-conquer parallelism User says "run in parallel", "split this work", "use dmux", or "multi-agent" What is dmux dmux is a tmux-based orchestration tool that manages AI agent panes: Press n to create a new pane with a prompt Press m to merge pane output back to the main session Supports: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cline, Gemini, Qwen Install: npm install -g dmux or see github.com/standardagents/dmux Quick Start
Start dmux session
dmux
Create agent panes (press 'n' in dmux, then type prompt)
Pane 1: "Implement the auth middleware in src/auth/"
Pane 2: "Write tests for the user service"
Pane 3: "Update API documentation"
Each pane runs its own agent session
Press 'm' to merge results back
Workflow Patterns Pattern 1: Research + Implement Split research and implementation into parallel tracks: Pane 1 (Research): "Research best practices for rate limiting in Node.js. Check current libraries, compare approaches, and write findings to /tmp/rate-limit-research.md" Pane 2 (Implement): "Implement rate limiting middleware for our Express API. Start with a basic token bucket, we'll refine after research completes."
After Pane 1 completes, merge findings into Pane 2's context
Pattern 2: Multi-File Feature Parallelize work across independent files: Pane 1: "Create the database schema and migrations for the billing feature" Pane 2: "Build the billing API endpoints in src/api/billing/" Pane 3: "Create the billing dashboard UI components"
Merge all, then do integration in main pane
Pattern 3: Test + Fix Loop Run tests in one pane, fix in another: Pane 1 (Watcher): "Run the test suite in watch mode. When tests fail, summarize the failures." Pane 2 (Fixer): "Fix failing tests based on the error output from pane 1" Pattern 4: Cross-Harness Use different AI tools for different tasks: Pane 1 (Claude Code): "Review the security of the auth module" Pane 2 (Codex): "Refactor the utility functions for performance" Pane 3 (Claude Code): "Write E2E tests for the checkout flow" Pattern 5: Code Review Pipeline Parallel review perspectives: Pane 1: "Review src/api/ for security vulnerabilities" Pane 2: "Review src/api/ for performance issues" Pane 3: "Review src/api/ for test coverage gaps"
Merge all reviews into a single report
Best Practices Independent tasks only. Don't parallelize tasks that depend on each other's output. Clear boundaries. Each pane should work on distinct files or concerns. Merge strategically. Review pane output before merging to avoid conflicts. Use git worktrees. For file-conflict-prone work, use separate worktrees per pane. Resource awareness. Each pane uses API tokens — keep total panes under 5-6. Git Worktree Integration For tasks that touch overlapping files:
Create worktrees for isolation
git worktree add -b feat/auth .. /feature-auth HEAD git worktree add -b feat/billing .. /feature-billing HEAD
Run agents in separate worktrees
Pane 1: cd ../feature-auth && claude
Pane 2: cd ../feature-billing && claude
Merge branches when done
git
merge feat/auth
git
merge feat/billing
Complementary Tools
Tool
What It Does
When to Use
dmux
tmux pane management for agents
Parallel agent sessions
Superset
Terminal IDE for 10+ parallel agents
Large-scale orchestration
Claude Code Task tool
In-process subagent spawning
Programmatic parallelism within a session
Codex multi-agent
Built-in agent roles
Codex-specific parallel work
ECC Helper
ECC now includes a helper for external tmux-pane orchestration with separate git worktrees:
node
scripts/orchestrate-worktrees.js plan.json
--execute
Example
plan.json
:
{
"sessionName"
:
"skill-audit"
,
"baseRef"
:
"HEAD"
,
"launcherCommand"
:
"codex exec --cwd {worktree_path_sh} --task-file {task_file_sh}"
,
"workers"
:
[
{
"name"
:
"docs-a"
,
"task"
:
"Fix skills 1-4 and write handoff notes."
}
,
{
"name"
:
"docs-b"
,
"task"
:
"Fix skills 5-8 and write handoff notes."
}
]
}
The helper:
Creates one branch-backed git worktree per worker
Optionally overlays selected
seedPaths
from the main checkout into each worker worktree
Writes per-worker
task.md
,
handoff.md
, and
status.md
files under
.orchestration/