Can OpenHands handle massive refactoring projects across multiple microservices?

All answers to this question.

For a task that big, you shouldn't rely on one single agent instance. The recommended approach with the OpenHands SDK is "Task Decomposition." You break the migration down into smaller, verifiable chunks—like updating one library at a time or porting a single service. You then set off a fleet of parallel agents to tackle these pieces. The SDK provides great tools for progress tracking, so you can see which services have passed their build tests and which ones need human intervention. We successfully used this pattern to add type annotations to a huge Python monolith, and it was significantly faster than having a human dev do it manually.

   Answered 2025-11-20 by Rachel Foster

How does OpenHands stay synchronized if one agent changes a shared library that another agent is currently using for a different service? Is there a central "Architect" agent that manages these cross-project dependencies?

   Answered 2025-11-28 by Jeffrey Reed

• Currently, you have to manage that orchestration logic yourself through the SDK. You’d typically run the "shared library" agent first, wait for the PR to merge, and then trigger the "consumer" agents. It’s more of a workflow automation tool than a "God AI" that understands your entire company's infrastructure all at once—but that's actually safer for maintaining system stability.

     Commented 2025-12-01 by Kevin Parker

The "Fixing and Verifying" tools in the SDK are what make this work. You define a test script, and the agent won't stop until the code actually passes that test.

   Answered 2025-12-10 by Melissa Gardner

• That "verification" step is the game changer. It turns the AI from a simple generator into a reliable engineering tool that won't ship broken code.

     Commented 2025-12-12 by Rachel Foster