PRODUCTION SCENARIO
An agent checks stock at three warehouses and then recommends the one with the most units nearest the customer, so all three counts are needed before it answers. Each lookup is a single-field read that takes about four seconds, all three use the same SKU, none needs another's output, and none of them is timing out. Today the agent issues one call per turn and the user waits twelve seconds.
Which change cuts the waiting without adding overhead?
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Show answer and explanation
Answer: Emit all three lookup calls in one assistant turn so they run at the same time
The three lookups are independent and read-only, so putting all three calls in one assistant turn runs them concurrently for the cost of a single turn and the user waits about four seconds instead of twelve. A subagent per warehouse also runs them at once and is right when each branch needs its own long exploration or isolated context; for a one-field read it pays a spawn and a separate context window for nothing. Raising the tool timeout is the fix when calls are timing out and being retried, and the stem rules that out. Stopping at the first hit is right when the task is to find any warehouse with stock, and this one has to compare three counts.