ParallelPilot: Supporting Coordination and Monitoring in Parallel AI Coding

arXiv:2609.33113v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: As coding assistants become increasingly autonomous, developers run multiple sessions in parallel, shifting the challenge from code generation alone to coordinating and monitoring concurrent agent work. Through a formative study (N=14), we identified PILOT: five supervisory practices for Planning, Isolating, Logging, Observing, and Triaging parallel sessions. We present ParallelPilot, a design probe that instantiates PILOT through a planning interface, a run-logger, and an ambient dashboard alongside existing coding tools. In a counterbalanced within-subjects study (N=16), participants using ParallelPilot increased ticket throughput by 63% in short coding tasks and supervised an average of one more concurrent agent at peak, while their tracking effort and context switching dropped. ParallelPilot also clarified execution plans, task dependencies, and intervention cues, and 14 of 16 participants preferred it over their current setup. These gains were not accompanied by significant improvements in perceived control or perceived success in redirecting the agents. Our findings demonstrate the value of explicit supervision support and position PILOT as a scaffold for designing tools that help people supervise concurrent work within and beyond coding. We suggest that future coding assistants should pair high-level awareness with low-cost paths back to the implementation evidence developers need to judge and steer agent work.

Abstract:As coding assistants become increasingly autonomous, developers run multiple sessions in parallel, shifting the challenge from code generation alone to coordinating and monitoring concurrent agent work. Through a formative study (N=14), we identified PILOT: five supervisory practices for Planning, Isolating, Logging, Observing, and Triaging parallel sessions. We present ParallelPilot, a design probe that instantiates PILOT through a planning interface, a run-logger, and an ambient dashboard alongside existing coding tools. In a counterbalanced within-subjects study (N=16), participants using ParallelPilot increased ticket throughput by 63% in short coding tasks and supervised an average of one more concurrent agent at peak, while their tracking effort and context switching dropped. ParallelPilot also clarified execution plans, task dependencies, and intervention cues, and 14 of 16 participants preferred it over their current setup. These gains were not accompanied by significant improvements in perceived control or perceived success in redirecting the agents. Our findings demonstrate the value of explicit supervision support and position PILOT as a scaffold for designing tools that help people supervise concurrent work within and beyond coding. We suggest that future coding assistants should pair high-level awareness with low-cost paths back to the implementation evidence developers need to judge and steer agent work.

Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing (cs.DC); Multiagent Systems (cs.MA)

arXiv:2609.33113 [cs.HC]

(or arXiv:2609.33113v1 [cs.HC] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.33113 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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ParallelPilot: Supporting Coordination and Monitoring in Parallel AI Coding

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