concurrency

Concurrency

Don't communicate by sharing memory; share memory by communicating. Concurrency is not parallelism.

When to Use

• Implementing worker pools, fan-out, pipelines, or rate limiting
• Choosing between message passing and shared state
• Auditing existing code for races, leaks, or deadlocks
• Reviewing concurrent code for correctness

When NOT to Use

• Single-threaded sequential code
• Simple request handlers with no background work
• Writing language-specific concurrent code (use <lang>/concurrency skill)

Core Process

1. Do you actually need concurrency? Sequential is simpler. Only add concurrency when there's a measurable benefit (I/O wait, CPU parallelism, latency requirement).
2. Choose the primitive — message passing for data transfer, locks for data protection.
3. Bound the concurrency — never spawn unlimited workers. Set limits.
4. Design the shutdown path — every concurrent task must be cancellable and joinable.
5. Protect shared state — if two tasks touch the same data, synchronize access.
6. Test with race detection — race conditions are non-deterministic; tooling catches what reviews miss.

Decision: Message Passing vs Shared State

Message Passing (channels/queues)	Shared State (locks/atomics)
Transferring ownership of data	Protecting internal state
Coordinating workers	Simple counter or flag
Distributing work	Short critical sections
Signaling events	Cache access

Rule: transferring data → message passing. Protecting data → shared state.

Pattern Catalog

Pattern	Use When	Key Rule
Worker Pool	Fixed concurrency over a stream	Bound the worker count
Fan-Out/Fan-In	Independent tasks, collect results	Each task writes to unique slot
Pipeline	Sequential stages connected by queues	Close/signal completion through the primitive
Rate Limiter	Throttle operations (API, DB)	Token bucket or leaky bucket
Once Init	Lazy init exactly once	Safe for concurrent callers
Deduplication	Suppress duplicate concurrent calls	Cache stampede prevention
Object Pool	Reuse temp objects under pressure	Reset before return; profile first

Concurrency Audit Checklist

When reviewing concurrent code, check:

1. Shutdown path — Can every concurrent task be stopped? Is there a join point?
2. Bounded concurrency — Is the number of concurrent tasks limited?
3. Shared state — Is every shared variable protected (lock, atomic, message primitive)?
4. Context cancellation — Do loops check for cancellation?
5. Error propagation — Do errors from concurrent tasks reach the caller?
6. Resource lifecycle — Are connections/files closed even on cancellation?

Anti-Patterns

• Resource leak — task with no shutdown path (runs forever)
• Race condition — unsynchronized access to shared state
• Message passing misuse — using channels when a simple lock is clearer
• Unbounded concurrency — spawning unlimited tasks (memory exhaustion)
• Deadlock — circular wait on locks or full channels
• Fire and forget — launching tasks without waiting or error handling

Common Rationalizations

Shortcut	Reality
"It probably won't race"	Races are non-deterministic. "Probably" means "sometimes in production."
"One concurrent task won't hurt"	Every unbounded task is a potential leak. Always provide a shutdown path.
"Message passing is always better"	Message primitives transfer ownership. Locks protect state. Pick the right tool.
"We'll add cancellation later"	Cancellation is architectural. Retrofitting is 10x harder than designing it in.

Red Flags

• Concurrent task with no shutdown/cancellation mechanism
• Shared mutable state without synchronization
• Unbounded task spawning (could spawn millions)
• Message primitive used as a lock (wrong tool for the job)
• No race detection in test suite
• Error silently dropped from concurrent task

Verification

• Every concurrent task has a shutdown path (cancellable and joinable)
• Concurrency is bounded (explicit limits on worker count)
• Shared state protected (lock, atomic, or message primitive ownership)
• Race detection enabled in test suite
• Errors from concurrent tasks propagated to caller
• No fire-and-forget patterns