Single-Agent vs Multi-Agent: When One Brain Is Enough

{
  "byte_id": "agentic_dev_018",
  "title": "Single-Agent vs Multi-Agent: When One Brain Is Enough",
  "level": "applied",
  "domain": [
    "agentic-development",
    "architecture",
    "multi-agent"
  ],
  "intent": "Understand when a single agent is sufficient and when splitting responsibilities across multiple agents makes systems more reliable and maintainable.",
  "core_idea": {
    "one_liner": "Multiple agents do not mean more intelligence — they mean clearer responsibilities.",
    "why_it_matters": [
      "Multi-agent systems add coordination cost.",
      "Most problems can be solved by one well-designed agent.",
      "Splitting roles too early creates chaos."
    ]
  },
  "definitions": {
    "single_agent": "One agent that plans, retrieves, acts, and verifies within a single loop.",
    "multi_agent": "Multiple agents with explicit roles that collaborate through defined interfaces."
  },
  "when_single_agent_is_enough": [
    "Linear workflows (analyze → decide → respond)",
    "Low task complexity",
    "Tight latency or cost constraints",
    "Clear ownership and scope"
  ],
  "when_multi_agent_makes_sense": [
    "Distinct roles (planner, executor, critic, retriever)",
    "Complex tasks with parallel sub-problems",
    "Need for stronger verification or debate",
    "Human-like review processes"
  ],
  "common_multi_agent_patterns": [
    {
      "pattern": "Planner–Executor–Critic",
      "purpose": "Separate thinking, doing, and verification."
    },
    {
      "pattern": "Retriever–Reasoner",
      "purpose": "Isolate knowledge access from decision logic."
    },
    {
      "pattern": "Specialist agents",
      "purpose": "Domain-specific expertise (e.g. SAP, security, finance)."
    }
  ],
  "coordination_rules": [
    "Agents communicate via structured messages only.",
    "No shared hidden state.",
    "Clear authority and stop conditions."
  ],
  "micro_example": {
    "scenario": "UAT defect analysis",
    "single_agent": "Analyzes ticket, retrieves knowledge, proposes fix.",
    "multi_agent": {
      "planner": "Defines investigation steps",
      "retriever": "Fetches relevant rules and logs",
      "critic": "Checks consistency and risk"
    }
  },
  "failure_modes": [
    "Too many agents for a simple task",
    "Unclear agent ownership",
    "Circular discussions between agents",
    "Hidden assumptions passed implicitly"
  ],
  "guards": [
    "Start with one agent; split only when necessary.",
    "Every agent must have a single clear role.",
    "Inter-agent communication must be logged."
  ],
  "teach_it_in_english": {
    "simple_explanation": "More agents mean more structure, not more magic.",
    "one_sentence_definition": "Multi-agent systems are about separation of concerns, not raw intelligence."
  },
  "practical_checklist": [
    "Can one agent handle this reliably?",
    "Are roles truly distinct?",
    "Is coordination overhead justified?",
    "Can we debug agent interactions?"
  ],
  "tags": [
    "single-agent",
    "multi-agent",
    "architecture",
    "coordination"
  ],
  "meta": {
    "schema": "dkharlanau.dataset.byte",
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "dataset": "agentic-bytes",
    "source_project": "cv-ai",
    "source_path": "agentic-bytes/agentic_dev_018.json",
    "generated_at_utc": "2026-02-03T14:33:32+00:00",
    "creator": {
      "name": "Dzmitryi Kharlanau",
      "role": "SAP Lead",
      "website": "https://dkharlanau.github.io",
      "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dkharlanau"
    },
    "attribution": {
      "attribution_required": true,
      "preferred_citation": "Dzmitryi Kharlanau (SAP Lead). Dataset bytes: https://dkharlanau.github.io"
    },
    "license": {
      "name": "",
      "spdx": "",
      "url": ""
    },
    "links": {
      "website": "https://dkharlanau.github.io",
      "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dkharlanau"
    },
    "contact": {
      "preferred": "linkedin",
      "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dkharlanau"
    },
    "canonical_url": "https://dkharlanau.github.io/datasets/agentic-bytes/agentic_dev_018.json",
    "created_at_utc": "2026-02-03T14:33:32+00:00",
    "updated_at_utc": "2026-02-03T15:29:02+00:00",
    "provenance": {
      "source_type": "chat_export_extraction",
      "note": "Extracted and curated by Dzmitryi Kharlanau; enriched for attribution and crawler indexing."
    },
    "entity_type": "agentic_byte",
    "entity_subtype": "level:applied",
    "summary": "Understand when a single agent is sufficient and when splitting responsibilities across multiple agents makes systems more reliable and maintainable."
  }
}