Orchestrator-Workers

Problem

A static decomposition — a fixed plan-and-execute pipeline or a hard-coded prompt chain — cannot handle tasks whose shape depends on the input. Trying to enumerate every possible sub-task in the prompt produces a sprawling system that still misses the cases the team did not anticipate. Picking the wrong decomposition at design time forces every request through it, even the ones it does not fit. The team needs decomposition to happen after the task arrives, not before.

Solution

Orchestrator agent receives the task, decides at runtime what subtasks to spawn, hands each to a worker (often via tool call), collects results, and synthesises the final output. Worker count and roles can vary per task.

When to use

• The shape of decomposition depends on the input and cannot be planned statically.
• An orchestrator agent can decide subtasks at runtime and synthesise results.
• Worker count and roles legitimately vary per task.