Encyclopedia · 176 concepts

AI Agents & Applications · intermediate · concept 159 of 176

Multi-Agent Systems & Orchestration

Splitting a task across several LLM agents with separate contexts and roles, coordinated by an orchestrator that fans out subtasks and merges what comes back. It pays off when subtasks are genuinely independent and each needs its own large context. It also multiplies token spend and makes failures harder to trace, so a single well-scoped agent is often the better answer. Research simulacra like Stanford's generative agents showed dozens of LLM agents producing believable social behavior.

Key terms

OrchestratorFan-outSub-agentHandoffToken multiplicationGenerative agents (simulacra)

Where you meet it in the real world

Deep research tools, large-scale code migration, parallel document review