Switchback gives your agent fleet shared task state, parent-child decomposition, blocks/related dependencies, comments-as-conversation, per-agent attribution. The missing primitive between cognitive memory and message queues.
Two agents in your fleet hit the same trigger and both spin up the same remediation plan. Your supervisor agent asks "what is the BDR agent working on right now?" and gets back nothing, agent state is ephemeral. A critical incident finishes and the post-incident review needs to reconstruct what each on-call agent knew at T+12 minutes; the only artifact is a scrolling log.
Memory tells you what your agents remember. Queues tell you what to do next. Neither tells you what your agents are doing right now.
That's the coordination gap. It's not a memory problem (cognitive memory engines like Meaning Memory solve that). It's not a queue problem (message buses solve push notification fine). It's a third leg: shared mutable task state, queryable by every agent in the fleet, with the structural primitives multi-agent work actually needs.
Switchback is a Postgres-backed agent coordination service exposed via MCP. Every agent in your fleet, supervisor, worker, monitor, escalation, reads and writes the same shared task state through the same MCP tool surface they already use for memory operations. No new SDK to learn. No separate transport layer.
Built on the same primitive our three-agent production fleet uses every day. Battle-tested schema, evolved through hundreds of multi-agent workflows, not paper-design.
Agents break work into sub-tasks with first-class parent-child relationships. Supervisor agents see done-vs-total at a glance.
Directional blocks for hard dependencies; symmetric related for soft links. Multi-agent coordination becomes explicit.
Agents talk to each other through threaded comments on tasks. Async handoffs become readable narrative, not log scraping.
Every write tagged by source agent, unspoofable, server-side. Post-incident audit trails are deterministic.
Backlog → Todo → In Progress → Done (plus team-specific custom states). Standard SDLC vocabulary; no DSL to learn.
Same MCP tool surface as your Meaning Memory deployment. switchback_create, switchback_update, switchback_comment, switchback_list. No separate SDK.
| Capability | Switchback | Temporal | LangGraph state | Custom Postgres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Designed for non-deterministic agent work | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | DIY |
| Mutable structure (add tasks mid-execution) | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | DIY |
| MCP-native (no new SDK) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Framework-agnostic | ✓ | ✓ | LangGraph only | ✓ |
| Battle-tested at multi-agent scale | ✓ | ✓ | Newer | DIY |
| Lightweight (no workflow runtime) | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Included with Meaning Memory license | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Switchback runs the coordination layer for our own always-on production fleet, our senior coding assistants, and thousands of multi-agent workflow paths across months of continuous operation. Postgres-backed and operational-grade , engineered to scale from a three-agent dogfood deployment to enterprise fleets with hundreds of agents. Battle-tested schema, not paper design. Every primitive on this page exists because a real agent workflow needed it.
Switchback ships packaged on request with your Meaning Memory license, no separate purchase, no additional cost. Tell us about your fleet and we'll scope the install path that fits your deployment shape.
Request accessSwitchback is the agent coordination MCP server included with every Meaning Memory license. It gives your agent fleet shared mutable task state: parent-child task decomposition, blocks/related dependencies, comments-as-conversation between agents, and per-agent attribution that cannot be spoofed. Strictly backend transport, no UI, no logins, no human dashboard. Agents read and write via the same MCP tool surface they already use for memory operations.
Workflow engines (Temporal, Airflow, Prefect) are DAG-oriented: they assume work is planned, predictable, and topologically defined ahead of time. Real agent work is non-deterministic, exploratory, and structurally fluid. Agents decide mid-execution that a task needs three children, or that what looked like one ticket is actually two unrelated issues, or that work needs to be blocked pending a peer agent's output. Switchback is built for that shape: mutable structure, comment threads, dynamic parent-child links, blocks/related relations. Lightweight Postgres-backed primitive, not a workflow runtime.
Switchback is included with every Meaning Memory license, both Engine and Studio editions. It packages as an optional MCP server deployable alongside your Meaning Memory install (Docker Compose, Kubernetes via Helm, or bare metal). License-gated by your existing Meaning Memory entitlement; no separate purchase needed. Contact us to scope the install profile for your deployment shape, we ship the package on request.