Orchestrator, Pipeline, Debate, Review

~30 min · orchestration, patterns

Level 0Observer

0 XP0/40 lessons0/12 achievements

0/100 XP to next level100 XP to go0% complete

More agents means more interfaces

Multi-agent systems are not automatically smarter. They are distributed systems with language-model-shaped nodes. Every handoff is an interface. Every interface can drop context, duplicate work, or amplify error.

Use multiple agents when specialization or parallelism pays for that coordination cost.

Four useful patterns

Orchestrator: one manager assigns work to specialists.
Pipeline: each agent transforms output for the next stage.
Debate: agents argue or explore alternatives before a judge decides.
Review: generator and critic iterate to a quality threshold.

Most production multi-agent systems are orchestrator or review patterns. Fully free-form agent chatrooms look impressive and debug terribly.

Code

Orchestrator skeleton·python

def orchestrate(task, manager, specialists):
    assignments = manager.assign(task, list(specialists))
    results = {}
    for item in assignments:
        worker = specialists[item["agent"]]
        results[item["id"]] = worker.run(item["task"])
    return manager.synthesize(task, results)

External links

Exercise

Pick a task and decide whether it fits orchestrator, pipeline, debate, or review. Explain the interface between agents.

Hint

If you cannot name the interface, you are not ready to split agents.

Progress

Progress is local-only — sign in to sync across devices.

← 🗺️ PlanningQuiz · 4 questions Next →CrewAI and Role-Based Teams

Spotted a bug or have feedback on this page?Report an Issue

Comments 0

🔔 Reply notifications (sign in)

No comments yet — be the first.