import{c as n,Q as a,j as t,m as s}from"./chunks/framework.BPKcPtvA.js";const d=JSON.parse('{"title":"Why One Agent Is Not Enough","description":"","frontmatter":{},"headers":[],"relativePath":"blog/posts/why-multi-agent.md","filePath":"blog/posts/why-multi-agent.md","lastUpdated":1780488472000}'),i={name:"blog/posts/why-multi-agent.md"};function o(l,e,r,p,h,g){return a(),t("div",null,[...e[0]||(e[0]=[s(`<h1 id="why-one-agent-is-not-enough" tabindex="-1">Why One Agent Is Not Enough <a class="header-anchor" href="#why-one-agent-is-not-enough" aria-label="Permalink to &quot;Why One Agent Is Not Enough&quot;">​</a></h1><p><strong>June 3, 2026</strong></p><p>A single agent, no matter how smart, hits three ceilings.</p><h2 id="the-context-ceiling" tabindex="-1">The Context Ceiling <a class="header-anchor" href="#the-context-ceiling" aria-label="Permalink to &quot;The Context Ceiling&quot;">​</a></h2><p>One agent doing everything means one context window holding everything. File contents, database schemas, business logic, deployment configs — they all compete for the same limited space. A 100K token codebase leaves zero room for the actual task.</p><h2 id="the-capability-ceiling" tabindex="-1">The Capability Ceiling <a class="header-anchor" href="#the-capability-ceiling" aria-label="Permalink to &quot;The Capability Ceiling&quot;">​</a></h2><p>A generalist agent is mediocre at everything. A specialized agent — backend dev, security reviewer, UI designer — outperforms the generalist in its domain by a wide margin. You wouldn&#39;t ask your frontend dev to write SQL migrations. Why ask your agent to?</p><h2 id="the-reliability-ceiling" tabindex="-1">The Reliability Ceiling <a class="header-anchor" href="#the-reliability-ceiling" aria-label="Permalink to &quot;The Reliability Ceiling&quot;">​</a></h2><p>One agent failing = everything fails. Multi-agent systems degrade gracefully. If the reviewer agent crashes, the builder keeps working. If the planner goes down, deployed agents continue running.</p><h2 id="the-solution-depth-2-delegation" tabindex="-1">The Solution: Depth-2 Delegation <a class="header-anchor" href="#the-solution-depth-2-delegation" aria-label="Permalink to &quot;The Solution: Depth-2 Delegation&quot;">​</a></h2><p>The production-proven pattern:</p><div class="language- vp-adaptive-theme"><button title="Copy Code" class="copy"></button><span class="lang"></span><pre class="shiki shiki-themes github-light github-dark vp-code" tabindex="0"><code><span class="line"><span>User</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>  |</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>  v</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>Orchestrator (Opus-level, thinking only)</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>  |</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>  +-- Planning Team Lead</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>  |     +-- Product Manager (worker)</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>  |     +-- UX Researcher (worker)</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>  |</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>  +-- Engineering Team Lead</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>  |     +-- Frontend Dev (worker)</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>  |     +-- Backend Dev (worker)</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>  |</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>  +-- Validation Team Lead</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>        +-- QA Engineer (worker)</span></span>
<span class="line"><span>        +-- Security Reviewer (worker)</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Leads think, plan, and delegate. Workers execute. The orchestrator never touches code.</p><h2 id="when-to-go-multi-agent" tabindex="-1">When to Go Multi-Agent <a class="header-anchor" href="#when-to-go-multi-agent" aria-label="Permalink to &quot;When to Go Multi-Agent&quot;">​</a></h2><p>You need multiple agents when any of these are true:</p><ul><li><strong>Different expertise required</strong> — Your task needs a planner, a coder, a reviewer, and a security auditor</li><li><strong>Parallel work possible</strong> — Multiple sub-tasks can run simultaneously</li><li><strong>Failure cost is high</strong> — You want a second agent to catch mistakes before they ship</li><li><strong>Context exceeds one window</strong> — Split across specialized agents</li></ul><p>If none of these are true, a single well-configured agent is simpler and cheaper.</p><hr><p><em>This is an excerpt from Module 4 of the <a href="/">Agentic Engineering Course</a>. The full module includes runnable lab code for building multi-agent systems with domain locking, mental models, and P2P communication.</em></p>`,19)])])}const u=n(i,[["render",o]]);export{d as __pageData,u as default};
