Scion: Isolated Parallel Agents

Scion runs “deep agents” as isolated, concurrent processes — each in its own container and git worktree. PaddleBoard integrates with a local Scion daemon so you can launch and watch those agents from the editor, and even delegate subtasks to them from your own agent.

Enable it (opt-in)

Scion is off by default. Turn it on in your settings:

{
  "paddleboard_scion": { "enabled": true }
}

Then install the Scion CLI and initialize it:

go install github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/scion/cmd/scion@latest
scion init --machine   # one-time, sets up the container runtime
scion init             # in your project

Scion needs a container runtime (Docker / Podman / Apple Container).

Use it

• scion: Start Agent (command palette) opens a modal — set a task, name, and template.
• The Orchestration Panel shows a Scion Agents section with each agent’s phase (provisioning → running → stopped) and activity (working, thinking, waiting…). Right-click a row for View Logs (live-streaming), Sync Changes (pull its worktree changes into your project), or Stop Agent.
• Delegation: when enabled, your agent gains a spawn_scion_agent tool — it can hand a subtask to a container + worktree-isolated Scion agent (instead of an in-process sub-agent that shares your workspace), wait for it, and return the result.

Telemetry (optional)

Scion can export agent-lifecycle traces over OpenTelemetry. See the Settings Reference for paddleboard_otel.