MANDATORY PREPARATION
Invoke /agent-workflow — it contains workflow principles, anti-patterns, and the Context Gathering Protocol. Follow the protocol before proceeding — if no workflow context exists yet, you MUST run /teach-maestro first. Consult the agent-architecture reference in the agent-workflow skill for topology patterns and when multi-agent is justified.
Design a multi-agent system. But first — are you sure you need one?
Step 1: Pre-Composition Check
Answer these before proceeding:
- Has a single agent been tried and failed? (If no, try single agent first)
- What specific limitation requires multiple agents? (If you can't name it, you don't need multi-agent)
- Is the cost/latency increase justified? (Multi-agent = 2-10x cost and latency)
If you can't articulate a specific limitation, use /amplify on the single agent instead.
Step 2: Design the Topology
Choose the right architecture pattern (consult the agent-architecture reference in the agent-workflow skill):
For each agent in the system, define:
## Agent: [Name]
Role: [One sentence]
Responsibilities: [What it does]
Boundaries: [What it does NOT do]
Tools: [List of tools this agent has access to]
Input: [What it receives]
Output: [What it produces]Step 3: Design Handoffs
For each agent-to-agent connection:
## Handoff: [Agent A] → [Agent B]
Trigger: [When does A hand off to B?]
Payload: [What data is passed?]
Expected response: [What does A expect back?]
Timeout: [How long to wait?]
Failure handling: [What if B fails?]Step 4: Design the Supervisor
Every multi-agent system needs a supervisor:
- Monitors agent health and performance
- Routes tasks to appropriate agents
- Handles failures and escalation
- Enforces global constraints (budget, time, quality)
Composition Checklist
- Each agent has a clear, non-overlapping role
- Handoff protocols are defined for every connection
- A supervisor pattern is in place
- Cost/latency budget accounts for all agents
- Failure modes are handled at every handoff point
- The system can be understood by reading the topology diagram
Recommended Next Step
After composition, run /fortify to add error handling at every handoff, then /evaluate to test the multi-agent system end-to-end.
NEVER:
- Build multi-agent for a problem a single agent can handle
- Create agents with overlapping responsibilities
- Skip the supervisor (autonomous swarms are unpredictable)
- Pass full context between all agents (pass only what's needed)
- Compose without defining handoff protocols