Once you have tools, orchestration decides how steps chain together. These patterns appear across frameworks under different names — the ideas are what matter.
Planner–executor
A first pass outlines steps (the plan); a second pass executes each step with tools. Good when tasks decompose cleanly and you want interpretability.
Risk: brittle plans if the domain shifts — add replanning after tool failures.
Handoffs
Specialist sub-agents own domains — security review vs documentation vs code changes — with explicit handoff messages containing only what the next agent needs.
Avoid unbounded message passing; summarize state when threads get long.
Graphs and finite state machines
For regulated or repetitive flows (support tickets), model the workflow as states and transitions, with LLMs filling slots inside each state — not inventing the whole process graph at runtime.
Human in the loop
Insert approval gates before irreversible actions: shipping a migration, sending email to customers, spending money.
Key takeaways
- Pick orchestration based on how rigid your business process is.
- Summarize and trim state between steps to control cost and drift.
- Use determinism where you can; use models where judgment adds value.