Manager and worker roles

As systems grow beyond a single agent, we need a way to divide responsibility without losing clarity. Manager–worker architectures exist to keep multi-agent systems understandable as they scale. This lesson focuses on defining those roles so that coordination remains explicit, predictable, and adaptable as the system evolves.

The role of a manager agent

A manager agent is responsible for coordination rather than execution. It decides what work needs to happen, when it should happen, and who should do it. The manager does not usually perform the work itself. Instead, it focuses on maintaining a coherent view of goals, progress, and outcomes across the system.

The role of worker agents

Worker agents exist to perform specific kinds of work. Each worker is optimized around execution rather than coordination. A worker receives a task, carries it out, and produces a result. Unlike managers, workers are not responsible for global planning or system-wide decisions.

Assigning clear responsibilities

Clear responsibility boundaries are essential in a manager–worker design. Managers decide what should be done and why. Workers decide how to do the assigned task within their domain. When these responsibilities are explicit, agents can be reasoned about independently and replaced or improved without reshaping the entire system.

Preventing overlap and ambiguity

Problems arise when managers start performing work or when workers begin making coordination decisions. Overlap leads to duplicated logic and unpredictable behavior. Ambiguity makes it difficult to understand why an action occurred. A clean separation keeps decision-making centralized and execution localized.

Designing roles that can evolve independently

Well-defined roles allow change without disruption. A worker’s internal logic can evolve without affecting the manager, as long as its inputs and outputs remain stable. Similarly, a manager can change how it assigns work without requiring workers to be rewritten. This independence is what makes manager–worker architectures resilient over time.

Conclusion

By separating coordination from execution, manager–worker architectures provide a stable structure for multi-agent systems. Defining responsibilities clearly allows each agent to remain focused, understandable, and adaptable. With these roles established, the system is ready to scale without collapsing under its own complexity.