Child tasks and worker slots

[amacfie-tc]

When child tasks are spawned then awaited as in https://docs.hatchet.run/home/child-spawning, does the parent still take up a worker slot? Or is the slot kept unless there's a manual slot release? After a manual slot release is it possible to reacquire the slot? Let's say the are N worker slots and N parent tasks are run, and they all wait for child tasks to complete. If the parents keep their slots, the children won't have a chance to run, so what's the recommended way to avoid this?

[grutt]

Sorry for the delay here --
Yes, a parent takes up a slot until it completes or you manually release the slot.
We recommend either adding additional slots, creating multiple workers for potentially blocking pools, or run parents as durable tasks (https://docs.hatchet.run/home/durable-execution) that utilize a different slot pool.

[amacfie-tc]

Thanks @grutt . Could you just expand a little on the meaning of "creating multiple workers for potentially blocking pools"?

[grutt]

Effectively you can have a worker for Parent tasks and a separate worker for Child tasks -- since these are independent groups of slots, your parent tasks will not deadlock your workload. does that clarify?

[amacfie-tc]

Gotcha, thanks!