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Generated from bd help --doc swarm. Swarm management commands for coordinating parallel work on epics. A swarm is a structured body of work defined by an epic and its children, with dependencies forming a DAG (directed acyclic graph) of work. 
bd swarm [command]

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bd swarm create

Create a swarm molecule to orchestrate parallel work on an epic. The swarm molecule:
  • Links to the epic it orchestrates
  • Has mol_type=swarm for discovery
  • Specifies a coordinator (optional)
  • Can be picked up by any coordinator agent
If given a single issue (not an epic), it will be auto-wrapped:
  • Creates an epic with that issue as its only child
  • Then creates the swarm molecule for that epic
Examples: bd swarm create bd-epic-123 # Create swarm for epic bd swarm create bd-epic-123 —coordinator=observer/ # With specific coordinator bd swarm create bd-task-456 # Auto-wrap single issue 
bd swarm create [epic-id] [flags]
Flags: 
      --coordinator string   Coordinator address (e.g., my-project/witness)
      --force                Create new swarm even if one already exists

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bd swarm list

List all swarm molecules with their status. Shows each swarm molecule with:
  • Progress (completed/total issues)
  • Active workers
  • Epic ID and title
Examples: bd swarm list # List all swarms bd swarm list —json # Machine-readable output 
bd swarm list [flags]

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bd swarm status

Show the current status of a swarm, computed from beads. Accepts either:
  • An epic ID (shows status for that epic’s children)
  • A swarm molecule ID (follows the link to find the epic)
Displays issues grouped by state:
  • Completed: Closed issues
  • Active: Issues currently in_progress (with assignee)
  • Ready: Open issues with all dependencies satisfied
  • Blocked: Open issues waiting on dependencies
The status is COMPUTED from beads, not stored separately. If beads changes, status changes. Examples: bd swarm status gt-epic-123 # Show swarm status by epic bd swarm status gt-swarm-456 # Show status via swarm molecule bd swarm status gt-epic-123 —json # Machine-readable output 
bd swarm status [epic-or-swarm-id] [flags]

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bd swarm validate

Validate an epic’s structure to ensure it’s ready for swarm execution. Checks for:
  • Correct dependency direction (requirement-based, not temporal)
  • Orphaned issues (roots with no dependents)
  • Missing dependencies (leaves that should depend on something)
  • Cycles (impossible to resolve)
  • Disconnected subgraphs
Reports:
  • Ready fronts (waves of parallel work)
  • Estimated worker-sessions
  • Maximum parallelism
  • Warnings for potential issues
Examples: bd swarm validate gt-epic-123 # Validate epic structure bd swarm validate gt-epic-123 —verbose # Include detailed issue graph 
bd swarm validate [epic-id] [flags]
Flags: 
      --verbose   Include detailed issue graph in output