APPENDIX C: PATTERNS CATALOG

ORCHESTRATION PATTERNS Supervisor pattern: one central agent splits the work, assigns pieces to helper agents, and combines what they return. Use this when: the job has clear parts and you want one place in charge of the whole. Pipeline pattern: agents are lined up so that each one transforms the output of the one before it. Use this when: the work naturally flows in stages, such as collect, clean, analyze, and write. Blackboard pattern: agents share one common workspace, and each watches it and contributes whenever it can add something. Use this when: the order of work cannot be known in advance and many specialists may each add a piece. Swarm pattern: agents pass control directly to one another as peers based on the situation, without a central coordinator. Use this when: the right specialist depends on the conversation as it unfolds, as in routing a customer to billing or technical help. Fan-out and fan-in pattern: the work is split into parts that run side by side and then merged. Use this when: the parts are independent and speed matters. Handoff with structured object pattern: when one agent passes work to another, it sends a compact package of facts instead of the whole history. Use this when: you want to keep each agent focused and its context small.