You need to resolve the issue of the agents generating conflicting output.

Separate branches isolate each agent’s proposed changes and allow the team to inspect them independently. Adding a required status check for file-level overlap detects conflicting modifications before either pull request is merged, preventing one agent’s work from silently overwriting another’s changes.

A read-only tool configuration prevents both agents from making required changes, so it avoids conflict by eliminating implementation capability rather than controlling it. CODEOWNERS approval adds review accountability for a specific file but does not automatically detect overlap between independent agent outputs. A single concurrency group serializes entire workflows and reduces throughput even where the agents work on unrelated files.

The selected solution maintains parallel development while creating a merge-time control for the actual risk: overlapping file changes. It also produces reviewable evidence of the overlap check in pull request status results.

Branch isolation does not eliminate semantic conflicts, such as incompatible API assumptions. Teams should therefore combine overlap detection with normal pull request review and integration testing.

Study-guide topics: parallel agent coordination, branch isolation, merge controls, and conflict detection.