Parallel Task Analysis Rules
Purpose
Provide a consistent way to identify implementation tasks that can be safely executed in parallel while generating tasks.md.
When to Consider Tasks Parallel
Only mark a task as parallel-capable when all of the following are true:
- No data dependency on pending tasks.
- No conflicting files or shared mutable resources are touched.
- No prerequisite review/approval from another task is required beforehand.
- Environment/setup work needed by this task is already satisfied or covered within the task itself.
Marking Convention
- Append
(P) immediately after the numeric identifier for each qualifying task.
- Example:
- [ ] 2.1 (P) Build background worker for emails
- Apply
(P) to both major tasks and sub-tasks when appropriate.
- If sequential execution is requested (e.g. via
--sequential flag), omit (P) markers entirely.
- Keep
(P) outside of checkbox brackets to avoid confusion with completion state.
Grouping & Ordering Guidelines
- Group parallel tasks under the same parent whenever the work belongs to the same theme.
- List obvious prerequisites or caveats in the detail bullets (e.g., "Requires schema migration from 1.2").
- When two tasks look similar but are not parallel-safe, call out the blocking dependency explicitly.
- Skip marking container-only major tasks (those without their own actionable detail bullets) with
(P)—evaluate parallel execution at the sub-task level instead.
Quality Checklist
Before marking a task with (P), ensure you have:
- Verified that running this task concurrently will not create merge or deployment conflicts.
- Captured any shared state expectations in the detail bullets.
- Confirmed that the implementation can be tested independently.
If any check fails, do not mark the task with (P) and explain the dependency in the task details.