Hierarchical Supervisors (Orchestrator + Workers)
A supervisor plans and delegates; workers execute and report back — a robust pattern for complex tasks.
The Supervisor Pattern
One "supervisor" agent decides what to do and delegates to specialized "worker" agents. Workers report back; supervisor synthesises.
Closer to how human teams work than free-form conversations.
Structure
Two levels (sometimes more):
- Supervisor — sees the user query, breaks it down, picks workers, integrates results
- Workers — specialized agents (research, code, math) each with their own tools and prompts
All lessons in this course
- Conversation-Based Multi-Agent (AutoGen)
- Hierarchical Supervisors (Orchestrator + Workers)
- Agent Roles and Specialisations
- Communication Protocols (Message Buses)