Orchestrator-Subagent Pattern

What Is the Orchestrator-Subagent Pattern?

The Orchestrator-Subagent pattern assigns distinct roles in a multi-agent system: one agent acts as the orchestrator (coordinator) and others act as subagents (executors). The orchestrator receives the high-level goal, breaks it into sub-tasks, delegates each to the appropriate subagent, and synthesizes the results into a final output.

Orchestrator Responsibilities

• Decompose the goal into discrete, delegatable sub-tasks
• Select the appropriate subagent for each sub-task
• Manage sequencing — some sub-tasks must complete before others begin
• Handle subagent failures — retry, escalate, or re-plan
• Synthesize results from all subagents into the final output

Subagent Responsibilities

• Execute exactly the delegated sub-task — no scope expansion
• Return structured results the orchestrator can reason over
• Report failures clearly — the orchestrator needs to know what went wrong to re-plan

When to Use It

• Complex tasks that require expertise in multiple distinct domains
• Tasks where a clear hierarchical decomposition is possible
• Enterprise workflows where governance requires clear accountability at each step