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Multi-agent systems: when to use them and what they cost flashcards
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- Front
- Multi-agent: when is it justified?
- Back
- When the work is broad and parallel, or when separate windows or distinct tools and permissions matter. Otherwise it adds tokens (Anthropic reported about 15 times a chat for its research system), latency and failure modes.
- Front
- Workflow vs agent vs multi-agent?
- Back
- Workflow: predefined code path. Agent: the model directs its own steps. Multi-agent: several coordinating agents. Choose the simplest structure that meets the bar.
- Front
- Why do long agent chains fail more often than their steps suggest?
- Back
- Errors compound: with independent steps, success is p to the power n. Illustrative: 0.9 over 8 steps is about 0.43. Use shorter chains, checks and checkpoints.