Parallel Fan-Out / Gather
Multiple independent agents execute in parallel on a partitioned task; a dedicated aggregator agent reconciles their results into a single output.
Problem
Without a named aggregator, reconciliation logic accretes in the orchestrator or in downstream consumers. Conflicts between parallel results (disagreement, overlap, missing pieces) have no designated handler. Distinct from generic parallelization by naming the aggregator role.
Solution
Partition the task into N sub-tasks. Spawn N workers in parallel; each emits a structured result. The aggregator (a dedicated agent or a deterministic merger) takes the N results and produces one output. Conflict resolution policy is part of the aggregator's design. Distinct from existing parallelization by mandating the named aggregator role. Pair with parallelization, scatter-gather-saga, heterogeneous-model-council-with-judge.
When to use
- Task naturally partitions into N parallel sub-tasks.
- Outputs can be reconciled by a separate component.
- Reconciliation policy is non-trivial enough to deserve its own role.
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