Chapter 17: Many agents

Orchestrator

Also called coordinator, orchestrator-workers

An agent whose job is running other agents. It splits the work, briefs each worker, tracks what comes back and judges it, and writes no code itself. A mistake in its brief is repeated by every worker it sends.

You can't watch fifty agents, and neither can your context window. An orchestrator holds the plan and stays small, because the details stay in the workers.

Say it to your agent

“You're coordinating, so don't edit code. Run one unit first and show me the result before you start the rest. For each worker, read its diff yourself. Don't pass on its summary as fact.”

The workshop

Name a word, or describe what you mean in everyday language.