We introduce a formalism for clause matching in concurrent committed-choice languages based on the construction of clause matching automata, a heuristic for the compi­lation of clause matching, and a technique for more efficient implementation of matches. The formalism is notable for its generality and simplicity, the heuristic for combining important advantages of several existing heuristics. These include good typical-case time and space performance, a minimal number of suspensions, which can lead to tremendous efficiency benefits, and incremental restart after suspensions, which eliminates repeated tests.