Skip to content

Proposal: evolve the current subagent system toward multi-agent collaboration #5000

Description

@bingqilinweimaotai

Problem / Motivation

The current subagent system is closer to background task delegation than a true multi-agent system.

A subagent receives a task, executes it independently, and returns a final result to the main agent. However, subagents do not have persistent identities, shared task state, agent-to-agent communication, or the ability to coordinate and delegate work among themselves.

This limits more complex workflows that require multiple specialized agents to collaborate, share intermediate results, and coordinate dependent or parallel tasks.

Proposed Solution

Consider evolving the current design toward an optional multi-agent system where multiple agents can:

  • have distinct roles and responsibilities;
  • communicate and collaborate with each other;
  • share task status and intermediate results;
  • coordinate dependent or parallel tasks;
  • delegate bounded subtasks when necessary.

The existing subagent feature could remain as the lightweight option for simple background delegation, while multi-agent coordination could support more complex workflows.

Alternatives Considered

Keep the current one-shot subagent model and rely on the main agent to manually coordinate all delegated tasks. This remains useful for simple background work, but it does not provide direct collaboration or shared coordination between agents.

Related Component

Agent / Prompts

Additional Context

This should follow nanobot's "core stays small; extend at the edges" principle. Ideally, multi-agent coordination could be introduced as an optional tool, plugin, or external service without adding significant complexity to AgentLoop or AgentRunner.

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    enhancementNew feature or request

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions