SOP-Encoded Multi-Agent Workflow
Encode a human Standard Operating Procedure (roles, ordered phases, standardised hand-off artefacts) into a multi-agent pipeline so that agents communicate through structured documents rather than free-form chat.
Problem
If the agents simply chat freely, they hallucinate context the SOP would have pinned down, drift off-task between roles, and produce no auditable trail of which agent did what. Without typed hand-off deliverables, agents redo each other's work or quietly skip steps, and ambiguity that the SOP would catch at a phase boundary propagates to the end. The team ends up with a multi-agent system that looks lively in the transcript but produces worse artefacts than a single human following the same procedure would.
Solution
Encode the SOP as: (a) a fixed set of named roles each with role-specific prompt and tool palette, (b) an ordered sequence of phases, (c) a typed artefact contract for each phase boundary (e.g. PRD → design doc → code → test plan → user manual). Agents communicate via the artefacts; a shared message pool plus a subscription filter routes only relevant context to each role.
When to use
- A complex repeatable task already has a documented human SOP with named roles.
- Hand-off artefacts between phases can be typed (PRD, design doc, code, test plan).
- An auditable trail of artefacts is required.
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