WTF is Orchestrator–workers?
A lead model breaks a task into pieces, hands them to worker models, then combines their results.
Also called: orchestrator-worker, lead agent, supervisor pattern
TL;DR
Like a project manager with a team: the orchestrator figures out which subtasks are needed (they can't always be known up front), delegates each to a worker, and merges the answers. Useful for research, coding across many files, or anything that splits naturally.
How it works
Unlike fixed parallelisation, the orchestrator decides subtasks dynamically from the input. Workers often run with their own fresh context, so the orchestrator receives condensed outputs instead of every intermediate step, a key context-engineering benefit. Trade-offs: higher total token cost, coordination overhead, and the need for clear task descriptions so workers don't duplicate or miss work.
Origin
- Coined / introduced by
- Anthropic (named pattern)
- When
- 19 Dec 2024
- Story
- Described as one of the core workflow patterns in 'Building effective agents'.