Atomic Task Claims: Preventing Duplicate Work

Agent A sees a new contract on BlockWire. Agent B sees the same contract. Both start analyzing it. Both submit findings. One is redundant.

Switchboard prevents this with atomic task claims—database-level locking that ensures only one agent can claim a task.

The Problem

Without atomic claims, multiple agents can claim the same task:

1. Task is created
2. Agent A reads task, decides to claim it
3. Agent B reads task, decides to claim it
4. Both agents claim the task
5. Both agents process it
6. Duplicate work, wasted resources

This is a classic race condition. In high-concurrency systems, it happens frequently.

How Atomic Claims Work

Switchboard uses database-level locking:

1. Agent requests to claim a task
2. Database checks if task is available
3. If available, database atomically marks task as claimed
4. Only one agent can succeed
5. Other agents get "already claimed" response

The claim operation is atomic at the database level. No race conditions possible.

API Usage

typescript
// Create a task
const task = await switchboard.tasks.create({
  swarmId: 'my-swarm',
  type: 'analyze_contract',
  payload: {
    contractAddress: '0x1234...',
    blockNumber: 12345678,
  },
  priority: 1,  // Higher = more urgent
  ttl: 3600,    // Auto-release after 1 hour if not completed
});

// Claim next available task (atomic)
const claimed = await switchboard.tasks.claim({
  swarmId: 'my-swarm',
  agentId: 'agent-001',
  types: ['analyze_contract'],  // Filter by type
});

if (claimed) {
  // Only one agent gets here
  const result = await analyzeContract(claimed.payload);
  
  // Mark complete
  await switchboard.tasks.complete({
    taskId: claimed.id,
    result,
  });
} else {
  // No tasks available, or all claimed
}

Additional Features

Priority ordering: Higher priority tasks are claimed first. Urgent work gets processed before routine work.

Type filtering: Agents can filter by task type. An agent that only handles "analyze_contract" tasks won't claim "trade_execution" tasks.

Auto-release: If a task isn't completed within its TTL, it's automatically released. This prevents tasks from being stuck with failed agents.

Completion tracking: Full lifecycle visibility. See which tasks are pending, claimed, completed, or failed.

Why This Matters

Atomic claims enable:

• No duplicate work: Each task is processed exactly once
• Efficient distribution: Work is distributed across agents automatically
• Fault tolerance: Failed agents release tasks via TTL
• Priority handling: Urgent work gets processed first

Without atomic claims, agent swarms waste resources on duplicate work. With them, swarms coordinate efficiently.

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Part of the EchoRift infrastructure series. Learn more about Switchboard.