Orchestrator Workers

Orchestrator-Workers

Central planner. Specialized workers. Dynamic task assignment.

Goal

Let orchestrator plan, assign, inspect, replan, and synthesize. Keep workers narrow and outputs easy to merge.

Rules

• Use only when dynamic planning adds value.
• Give each worker one clear job.
• Define worker output schema.
• Store shared state outside prompts.
• Cap replan rounds.
• Keep trace of jobs and results.
• Ground final synthesis in worker outputs.

Flow

1. Orchestrator reads task.
2. Orchestrator creates first worker jobs.
3. Workers execute independently.
4. Orchestrator reviews outputs.
5. Orchestrator assigns follow-up jobs if needed.
6. Orchestrator synthesizes final answer.

Good Worker Types

• Research worker
• Retrieval worker
• Code worker
• Test worker
• Critique worker
• Summarizer worker

Avoid

• Workers with overlapping scope.
• Infinite replanning.
• Vague shared state.
• Verbose outputs.
• Hidden uncertainty.
• Orchestrator doing all worker work.

Output

## Orchestrator Plan

Task: [goal]
Shared state: [source of truth]
Max rounds: [n]

Workers:
- [worker]: [job], output [schema]

Review:
- Gaps: [missing info]
- Follow-up jobs: [if needed]

Final synthesis:
- [combined result grounded in worker outputs]

Decision Rule

Use orchestrator-workers when decomposition must happen during execution. If job graph is known upfront, use prompt chaining or parallelization.