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Built-in support for parallel sub-agent execution in plugins? #3568

@sophiaso

Description

@sophiaso

Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve

I'm building a Copilot CLI plugin where an orchestrator agent generates multiple sub-tasks. I'd like to execute these sub-tasks in parallel, but it's unclear whether Copilot CLI offers any built-in capability for plugins to do this programmatically. The /fleet slash command enables parallel sub-agent execution in interactive sessions, but it appears to be user-driven. I'm looking for an equivalent that a plugin/agent can leverage natively, so plugin developers don't have to build their own parallelism solution.

Proposed solution

Provide a built-in, programmatic way for plugin agents to dispatch sub-tasks in parallel — for example, a native mechanism equivalent to /fleet that can be triggered from within an agent rather than only by the end user.

This would benefit plugin authors building orchestrator-style agents (assess → plan → execute workflows, multi-task migrations, batch refactors, etc.) by removing the need for each plugin to reinvent parallel dispatch, conflict handling, and result collection.

Example prompts or workflows

  1. A test-generation plugin that fans out per-module test authoring to multiple sub-agents simultaneously.
  2. A multi-repo refactoring plugin that applies the same change across N repositories in parallel.

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    area:agentsSub-agents, fleet, autopilot, plan mode, background agents, and custom agentsarea:pluginsPlugin system, marketplace, hooks, skills, extensions, and custom agents
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