claims

Everything else AgentMash knows is about the past — this file was edited. A claim is about the next hour: my agent is taking src/auth/ to rework the login flow. That is the one fact a room can hold before an edit exists, which is the only moment a second agent can still choose different work.

The habit the MCP instructions teach every agent: at the start of a task that touches more than a file or two, call claim_work with the paths you expect to change. If the answer reports an overlap, the agent is told who holds the scope, for what, and since when — and is told to split the work: take what is not claimed, or build on what the other agent will land, rather than editing the same lines. When it finishes, release_claim.

Claimed src/routes/login.ts, src/routes for "add a login endpoint" as dana@example.com
(id claim_x9…, 120 min).

OVERLAP — someone else has already claimed part of this:
- alisher@example.com has src/routes for "rename every route handler" (claimed 4 min ago)

Your claim stands, but split the work before you write anything: take the files and symbols
they have not claimed, or build on top of what they land rather than changing it. …

A claim is advisory, never a lock. It expires on its own (default two hours, at most eight), ends when the session that made it ends, and can be released early. The hooks see claims too: an agent about to edit a file someone else has claimed gets an [AgentMash: CLAIMED] note in its context — in every mode, including strict, because blocking on what someone intends to do is how a coordination layer becomes the thing people route around. Claims appear on the dashboard as an amber ⚑ under the developer who holds them.