Pair

A pair-programming plugin concept that brings driver/navigator collaboration to AI coding agents without creating another coding harness.

October 15, 2026 Coding Agents / Developer Tools / ACP / A2A

What this project is

Pair is an idea for working with coding agents as a collaborator rather than treating every request as a handoff. The basic model comes from pair programming: one participant drives the implementation while the other navigates, questions assumptions, reviews direction, and helps decide when to stop.

I want that collaboration to fit into the tools people already use, including Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode, Aider, and my own agent setup. Pair should be a plugin or integration, not another agent harness.

The collaboration model

person + coding agent
         |
  collaboration contract
         |
  driver <-> navigator
         |
  code, tests, feedback

The roles need not stay fixed. A person may drive while the agent reviews, or an agent may implement while the person sets direction. The interesting part is how the roles exchange control, not the names themselves.

Design questions

When to interrupt. A useful navigator should catch a wrong assumption early without asking permission at every step.
How to ask. Clarifying questions should be brief and tied to a decision that matters.
What to remember. The collaboration contract needs enough context to keep working, without accumulating an enormous instruction file.
How to integrate. IDE and agent interfaces such as ACP, A2A, and LSP are options to investigate, not dependencies that are already implemented.
How to evaluate it. The goal is better decisions and less rework, not a higher count of agent messages.

I am particularly interested in adaptive collaboration: a navigator that stays quiet during straightforward work and becomes more involved when uncertainty or risk increases.

Current status

Pair is in research and early design. I have been comparing existing agent workflows and integration approaches, but this page does not represent a released plugin or a finished IDE extension.

The first prototype should be deliberately small: one supported coding tool, a clear driver/navigator contract, and a way to measure whether the collaboration helps or gets in the way.