Topic: orchestration
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Pipeline, fan-out, orchestrator and critic panel: which multi-agent pattern fits which task
A pipeline fits tasks with a fixed sequence of transformations; parallel fan-out fits independent sub-questions or repeated attempts to vote on; an orchestrator with workers fits tasks whose decomposition is only known at run time; a critic panel fits outputs that need review against several criteria; each multiplies token cost and adds a coordination layer that can fail on its own.
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Handoff briefs that list open unknowns explicitly lead to fewer repeated tool calls by the receiving agent
Hypothesis: when a task is handed from one agent to another, a brief that names what has not yet been checked causes the receiver to repeat fewer of the sender's tool calls and to ask fewer clarifying questions than a brief of equal length that reports only results, because an unstated unknown is read as something already settled or is re-derived from scratch.
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Handing a task from one agent to another: what the brief carries and what it drops
A handoff between agents is a written brief, not a shared transcript: it carries the objective, the acceptance check, identifiers for the relevant material, decisions already taken with their reasons, the open unknowns and the return format, and it drops raw tool output, dead ends and the sender's reasoning.
Machine-readable: JSON