NOETIC
Framework
Operators

inParallel

Run multiple steps in parallel with race, all, or settle semantics.

Quick Example

import { callModel, inParallel } from '@noetic-tools/core';

const fastest = inParallel({
  id: 'fastest-response',
  mode: 'race',
  paths: (input: string) => [
    callModel({
      id: 'model-a',
      model: 'openai/gpt-4o',
    }),
    callModel({
      id: 'model-b',
      model: 'openai/gpt-4o-mini',
    }),
  ],
});

What It Does

inParallel runs multiple steps concurrently and combines the results. There are three modes that determine how results are collected.

Modes

race

Returns the output of the first step to complete. All other paths are discarded.

import { inParallel, runCode } from '@noetic-tools/core';

const raceExample = inParallel({
  id: 'race-providers',
  mode: 'race',
  paths: (query: string) => [
    runCode({
      id: 'provider-a',
      execute: async (q) => fetchProviderA(q),
    }),
    runCode({
      id: 'provider-b',
      execute: async (q) => fetchProviderB(q),
    }),
  ],
});

No merge function is needed -- the winner's output is used directly.

all

Waits for every path to complete, then calls merge with an array of all results.

import { inParallel, runCode } from '@noetic-tools/core';

const allExample = inParallel({
  id: 'gather-research',
  mode: 'all',
  paths: (topic: string) => [
    runCode({
      id: 'academic',
      execute: async (t) => searchAcademic(t),
    }),
    runCode({
      id: 'news',
      execute: async (t) => searchNews(t),
    }),
    runCode({
      id: 'social',
      execute: async (t) => searchSocial(t),
    }),
  ],
  merge: (results) => results.flat(),
});

If any path throws, the entire inParallel throws fork_partial. The first genuine failure also cancels the remaining paths: siblings still queued behind the concurrency limit are skipped, and in-flight siblings are aborted cooperatively (they stop at their next step boundary or blocked channel operation) and then awaited. Cancelled siblings appear in fork_partial.failed with error.kind === 'cancelled'; paths that completed before the failure stay in succeeded. If the parent context itself is aborted mid-run, the operator throws cancelled instead of fork_partial.

settle

Like all, but collects both successes and failures. Each result is a SettleResult with a status field.

import type { SettleResult } from '@noetic-tools/core';

import { inParallel, runCode } from '@noetic-tools/core';

const settleExample = inParallel({
  id: 'resilient-search',
  mode: 'settle',
  paths: (query: string) => [
    runCode({
      id: 'source-a',
      execute: async (q) => fetchSourceA(q),
    }),
    runCode({
      id: 'source-b',
      execute: async (q) => fetchSourceB(q),
    }),
  ],
  merge: (results: SettleResult<string>[]) => {
    const successes = results
      .filter((r) => r.status === 'fulfilled')
      .map((r) => r.value);
    return successes.join('\n');
  },
});

SettleResult Type

PropertyTypeDescription
stepIdstringThe id of the step that produced this result
status'fulfilled' | 'rejected'Whether the step succeeded or failed
valueO | undefinedThe output value (present when fulfilled)
errorNoeticError | undefinedThe error (present when rejected)

API Reference

Common Options (all modes)

PropertyTypeRequiredDescription
idstringYesUnique step identifier
mode'race' | 'all' | 'settle'YesExecution mode
paths(input: I, ctx: Context<TContext>) => Step<TContext, I, O>[]YesFunction returning the steps to run
concurrencynumberNoMax parallel executions

Mode-Specific Options

PropertyModesTypeDescription
mergeall(results: O[], ctx: Context<TContext>) => OCombine all outputs into one
mergesettle(results: SettleResult<O>[], ctx: Context<TContext>) => OCombine settled results into one

Concurrency Control

Limit how many paths run at once with concurrency.

import { inParallel } from '@noetic-tools/core';

const throttled = inParallel({
  id: 'throttled-parallel',
  mode: 'all',
  paths: (input: string) => generateManySteps(input),
  merge: (results) => results,
  concurrency: 3, // at most 3 paths execute simultaneously
});

Context Layers

Each path is a child execution. It inherits the parent's context layers and tool pool, so callModel steps inside a path keep their context projection and layer tools, and a nested spawn has layers to inherit.

Layer state is per path:

  • onSpawn seeds each path's state from the parent's before the path runs. Items returned by onSpawn are not appended -- a parallel path already has the parent's full item log.
  • onReturn merges a successful path's contribution back into the parent. A failed path is not merged, and its state is discarded.
  • Merges run one at a time even though paths run concurrently, so no path's contribution is lost to a concurrent read-modify-write.

For layers that collect artifacts from many workers, choose a merge strategy that namespaces per child -- see taskState({ mergeData: 'namespace' }).

  • conditional -- conditional routing for single-path decisions.
  • Spawn -- isolated child contexts for deeper isolation.
  • Steps -- the step types you can use as parallel paths.

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