Multi-Agent Orchestration Patterns That Actually Work

The failure mode is agent soup

Three models in one context window do not create a team. They create a louder single agent.

Multi-agent systems work when responsibilities and outputs are explicit.

Patterns that survive production

Planner, specialist, verifier, executor is the most reliable pattern we see.

Map-reduce also works well for large analysis tasks split across independent slices.

State is the hard part

Implicit state causes coherent-looking outputs that violate hidden assumptions.

Use explicit artifacts: plans, schemas, checklists, traces, and decisions.