Agent coordination · 2026 · Solo — product research, concurrency architecture, interaction design, build, verification
Second Shift
A local-first dispatch floor that gives parallel coding-agent sessions exact task ownership without mutating GitHub.
The problem
A solo developer running several coding-agent sessions can lose time when two sessions claim the same issue or when ownership disappears into chat history. Centralized project boards do not serialize local browser contexts, and silently reassigning work when one tab vanishes can create a second conflicting worker. Second Shift imports current public GitHub issues and turns every open tab into a named station with explicit, durable ownership.
Architecture
Key decisions
Serialize claims where the race occurs
Every tab enters the same named Web Lock, rereads IndexedDB inside that critical section, and applies a pure transition that rejects already-owned work. Stale UI cannot steal a task after another station wins.
Keep storage authoritative
BroadcastChannel only tells peers to reread. A dropped or delayed message cannot become a competing source of truth because versioned IndexedDB state owns every task and station record.
Separate presence from ownership
Station heartbeats expire when a tab disappears, but claimed work remains assigned. Returning offline work to intake requires an explicit operator action, avoiding silent duplicate execution.
Bound external effects
GitHub access is public and read-only: no token, private repository, issue write, or agent execution is implied. All claims and completion state remain inside one browser profile.