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Workflow Design Patterns

Master proven patterns for designing scalable, maintainable agent workflows

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Hierarchical Workflow Design

Hierarchical patterns organize agents into a tree structure with managers coordinating teams of workers. This mirrors real-world organizational structures and scales naturally as complexity grows.

Key Benefits

🎯

Clear Responsibility

Each level owns specific concerns

📊

Scalable Structure

Add teams without redesigning system

🧩

Modular Design

Teams work independently with clear interfaces

Interactive: Organizational Hierarchy

Click the manager node to expand the full hierarchy and explore how work flows through levels.

Project Manager
Coordinates overall project
Research Lead
Oversees research team
Writing Lead
Manages content creation
HIERARCHY PATTERN:
Top Level (Manager): Receives goal, decomposes into sub-goals, assigns to team leads.
Middle Level (Leads): Coordinate their teams, aggregate results, report to manager.
Bottom Level (Workers): Execute specific tasks, return results to their lead.

Delegation Strategies

Command-and-Control
Top-down: Manager issues explicit instructions to all levels
Autonomous Teams
Manager sets goals, teams decide how to achieve them
Hybrid
Strategic direction from top, tactical decisions at team level

Communication Patterns

↕️
Vertical
Manager ↔ Leads ↔ Workers (up/down hierarchy)
↔️
Horizontal
Workers collaborate within same team
⤴️
Escalation
Issues bubble up to higher levels when needed

Design Considerations

Depth vs Breadth
✓
Shallow & Wide: Few levels, many children per node. Fast communication, but managers can be overwhelmed.
✓
Deep & Narrow: Many levels, few children per node. Focused management, but slower communication.
Coordination Overhead
⚠
More levels = more coordination overhead
⚠
Managers become bottlenecks if overloaded
⚠
Balance span of control (5-7 direct reports ideal)

When to Use Hierarchical

✓
Complex goals requiring decomposition
✓
Many agents with specialized skills
✓
Need for quality control at multiple stages
✓
Large-scale systems requiring structure

Real-World Examples

→
Software Development: Architect → Team Leads → Engineers
→
Content Creation: Editor-in-Chief → Section Editors → Writers
→
Customer Support: Support Director → Team Managers → Agents

💡 Key Insight

Hierarchies manage complexity through abstraction. Each level operates at a different level of detail. Top-level managers think in terms of goals and outcomes; mid-level leads translate goals into work packages; workers focus on specific tasks. This separation of concerns prevents any single agent from being overwhelmed by the full system complexity.

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