parallel-explore

A workflow for exploring several implementation approaches in separate Git worktrees, which are independent working directories linked to the same repository. It compares the results before choosing an approach.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to compare implementation strategies, library choices, API designs, or performance approaches that need hands-on evaluation.
Why use it?
It lets you test competing designs without mixing their changes together. This is useful when architecture, libraries, or algorithms have multiple plausible options.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/youglin-dev/aha-loop/parallel-explore
Any agent
npx skills add YougLin-dev/Aha-Loop --skill parallel-explore
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/YougLin-dev/Aha-Loop

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 39 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,754 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00039 $0.01754
Opus 5 $0.00019 $0.00877
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00351
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00175

Measured 2d ago against content hash 1d1014d73155, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

parallel-explore scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.agents/skills/parallel-explore/SKILL.md · 335 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 335 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Parallel Exploration Skill

Guide the process of exploring multiple implementation approaches simultaneously using git worktrees.


The Job

  1. Identify when parallel exploration would be valuable
  2. Define distinct approaches to explore
  3. Create isolated worktrees for each approach
  4. Execute exploration in parallel
  5. Evaluate and compare results
  6. Merge the best solution

When to Use Parallel Exploration

Good Candidates

  • Architecture decisions - Different patterns (e.g., microservices vs monolith)
  • Library selection - Comparing similar libraries hands-on
  • Algorithm choices - Different approaches to the same problem
  • API design - Different interface designs
  • Performance optimization - Multiple optimization strategies

Not Worth Parallelizing

  • Simple, clear-cut decisions
  • Tasks with obvious single approach
  • Very small changes
  • Changes that don't warrant the overhead

Exploration Process

Step 1: Identify the Decision Point

When you encounter a significant decision:

## Decision Point Identified

**Question:** [What needs to be decided]
**Context:** [Why this matters]
**Approaches to Explore:**
1. [Approach A] - [Brief description]
2. [Approach B] - [Brief description]
3. [Approach C] - [Brief description]

**Exploration Value:** [Why parallel exploration helps here]

Step 2: Start Exploration

Use the parallel explorer script:

./scripts/aha-loop/parallel-explorer.sh explore "task description" --approaches "approach1,approach2,approach3"

Or let AI suggest approaches:

./scripts/aha-loop/parallel-explorer.sh explore "task description"
# AI will suggest approaches automatically

Step 3: Work in Each Worktree

In each worktree, the AI should:

  1. Implement fully - Not just a stub, but working code
  2. Write tests - Validate the approach works
  3. Document findings - Create EXPLORATION_RESULT.md

Step 4: Create Exploration Result

Each worktree must have EXPLORATION_RESULT.md:

Read the full file on GitHub · 335 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 335 lines · 39 tokens per session scan A 1d1014d73155

Subscribe to this mod's changes

parallel-explore is a skill published in the GitHub repository YougLin-dev/Aha-Loop (181 stars, last pushed 7mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 39 tokens to every session and 1,754 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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