Introduction
Isolate is a workspace isolation tool built on top of JJ (Jujutsu) version control. It provides clean, isolated workspaces for AI agents working in parallel.
The Problem
Running 8-12 agents in parallel is chaos:
- Lost code — changes overwritten, gone forever
- Duplicate work — the same feature re-implemented 3-4x
- Bead stealing — agents claiming work already in progress
- Detached HEAD — constantly stuck in broken states
- Broken main — always blocked, always broken
The Solution
Workspace isolation. Each agent gets their own isolated JJ workspace. No shared state to corrupt, no coordination needed between agents.
Architecture
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Development Phase (Isolate) │
│ - Agent spawns workspace │
│ - Agent works on feature │
│ - Agent runs isolate sync as main advances │
│ - Feature validated │
└─────────────────────── Hand off ────────────────────────┘
↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Queue/Stacking Phase (External Tool) │
│ - Gets feature from Isolate │
│ - Handles queue, stacking, final rebase │
│ - Merges to main │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Why JJ?
JJ is fundamentally better for multi-agent workflows:
- Lock-free concurrency — agents don’t corrupt each other’s work
- Operation log — undo ANY operation, recover from mistakes
- Anonymous commits — no branch name pollution at 8-12 agents
- First-class conflicts — no blocking on merges
Git Worktrees work at 1-3 agents. They break at 4+. We know because we lived it.
Quick Start
# Check where you are
isolate whereami
# Start work on a feature
isolate work feature-123
# Sync with main as it advances
isolate sync
# Complete work when done
isolate done
Requirements
- JJ (Jujutsu) must be installed
- Install via:
cargo install jj-cliorbrew install jj