Resolve inter-agent conflicts with documented priority…
When discovering that your designed agents conflict with each other, resolve the conflict through documented priority hierarchies rather than case-by-case deliberation, making the resolution rule itself part of your agent system.
When This Fires
- When two agents prescribe contradictory actions for the same moment
- When adding a new agent to a system where time or resources are already allocated
- During agent portfolio reviews when mapping potential conflicts
- When you notice recurring deliberation about which commitment to honor
Common Failure Mode
Resolving each conflict in the moment based on how you feel: "Today I'll skip exercise for the meeting." Without a priority hierarchy, the louder, more urgent, or more socially visible agent always wins — regardless of whether it's actually more important. Urgency dominates importance by default. The hierarchy explicitly encodes importance so that it can override urgency when appropriate.
The Protocol
(1) List all active agents. (2) Group by domain: health, productivity, social, learning, etc. (3) Establish inter-domain priority: which domain wins when two domains conflict? Document this explicitly. (4) Within each domain, establish agent priority: which specific agents take precedence? (5) When a conflict occurs, consult the hierarchy: the higher-priority agent wins. No deliberation needed. (6) Review the hierarchy quarterly — priorities shift as life circumstances change. (7) Exception rule: define the conditions (if any) under which the hierarchy can be overridden. This should be rare and specific, not "whenever it feels important."