Coordinating several agents without losing the plot
Supervisor-specialist, hierarchical or peer handoffs: the pattern should follow the problem. We design the control flow and state so a team of agents stays reliable.
How we approach it
Splitting one large prompt into specialist agents reduces confusion, but it creates new problems: who decides, how context is passed, and how to stop loops. The orchestration layer answers those questions.
We choose between a supervisor that routes work, a hierarchy for large tasks, and simple sequential handoffs. Each has trade-offs in latency, cost and debuggability, and we prototype the cheapest pattern that meets the quality bar.
Fewer agents is often better
We start with the smallest topology that works. More agents add cost and failure modes, so each one must earn its place.
- Typed state between agents rather than free-form text.
- Fallbacks when a specialist fails or times out.
- Cost visible per run and per agent.
Step by step
Decompose
Break the job into roles with clear inputs and outputs.
Choose a pattern
Supervisor, hierarchy or handoff chain.
Define state
A shared, typed state that agents read and write.
Trace
Every step recorded for replay and debugging.
What you receive
Routing logic
Deterministic routing where possible, model routing where needed.
Loop and budget limits
Step, token and time budgets so runs end.
Replayable traces
Re-run a failed conversation step by step.
Handoffs with context
Explicit hand-over of what the next agent needs.
Common questions
Do we need multiple agents?
Not always. A single agent with good tools is often enough. We add agents when roles, permissions or context sizes justify it.
How do you debug multi-agent runs?
Through structured traces of every message, tool call and decision, which can be replayed.
Can agents run in parallel?
Yes, where tasks are independent, with results merged by a defined step.
Scope your agent system with an engineer
Bring the process you want to automate. We will talk through the architecture, the risks and a realistic first release.