Collaboration Patterns

A collaboration's pattern decides how its member agents coordinate. Pick the one that matches the shape of the work.

Sequential

Agents run in order; each receives the previous agent's output as context. Use it for a clear pipeline of stages.

Researcher  →  Writer  →  Editor
(gathers)      (drafts)    (polishes)

• Order matters — set it with the up/down controls when adding members.
• By default each stage sees the immediately-prior output; enable Pass full context to give every stage the whole pipeline so far (bounded by the context budget — see Cost & Reliability).

Best for: document pipelines, multi-stage processing, review chains.

Router

A router agent reads the request, classifies it, and forwards it to a single specialist. Only the chosen specialist runs.

• Mark one member's role as router; the rest are specialists.
• Give each specialist routing keywords (and optionally specialties) to guide classification.
• The routing decision now emits structured JSON and the chosen specialist + the reason are shown in the trace, so a mis-route is easy to debug.
• Set a default specialist as the fallback when routing is unresolved; optionally provide a custom classifier prompt.

Best for: support triage, "send this to the right expert" scenarios.

Parallel

All participants run at the same time on the same input. An optional synthesizer blends their answers into one; without a synthesizer, the outputs are concatenated.

• Add participants, then (optionally) one member with the synthesizer role.
• Branches run concurrently, so wall-clock time is roughly the slowest branch, not the sum.

Best for: getting multiple independent takes, then one combined answer.

Debate

Participants argue over rounds. Each round, every participant sees the others' previous-round answers and refines its position. An optional synthesizer renders the final verdict from the full transcript.

• Set the number of rounds (1–5; capped so a debate can't loop forever).
• Add a synthesizer for a single verdict.

Best for: questions that benefit from challenge and refinement.

Choosing a Pattern

Start with sequential or router — they're the simplest and cheapest. Reach for parallel/debate when the extra agent calls are worth it.