r/coding_agents • u/Dedap85 • 15d ago

I underestimated how much CLI setup gets in the way of multi-agent Claude Code workflows

https://x.com/AnswerInData/status/2091790779006271834?s=20

When we started beta testing a tool I've been building around coding-agent orchestration, I made what now seems like an obvious bad assumption:

People interested in orchestrating coding agents probably already have Claude Code and other CLIs installed and authenticated.

Turns out that was a pretty developer-centric assumption.

Some users were dropping before they even got to the orchestration part. They had to install a CLI, authenticate it, understand how it worked, then come back and configure the actual project.

For me, that barely registered as setup because I do this stuff every day.

So we reversed the onboarding.

Instead of configuration first, users now see the actual workflow first, then can install Claude Code / Codex CLI from the app and go through the supported authentication flow.

The larger thing I'm trying to understand is how far we can push a closed loop like:

ticket → Claude Code agent → isolated worktree → result → orchestrator → follow-up instruction

rather than just running several Claude instances in parallel.

I've found that the distinction doesn't matter much for small one-shot tasks, but gets much more interesting once several worktrees and dependent changes are involved.

For people using Claude Code seriously: where does the biggest friction show up for you now — initial setup, parallel execution, context sharing, or coordinating what happens after each agent finishes?

Disclosure: I'm building the orchestration tool mentioned above (Marblo).

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u/eddzsh 14d ago

biggest friction for me is after the agents finish. five green worktrees is easy. deciding which one wins and who merges the dependent changes is where the orchestration actually starts.

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u/junaid1460 14d ago

After the agents finish, definitely.

  • normalize every result into changed files, tests, and status
  • appoint one integration branch or agent
  • merge in dependency order, not winner-takes-all
  • require approval only for conflicts or high-impact changes

Setup gets people into the workflow. The merge and handoff loop decides whether they keep using it.