Supervisor Pattern

What is the supervisor pattern?

Ask a single agent to handle a complex job and it's easy to drop the ball. The supervisor pattern adds a "manager agent": it does none of the actual work itself, just splits the task, hands pieces to several sub-agents, collects their results, and assembles the final answer — adjusting the division of labor as needed.

What does the supervisor actually manage?

Breaking the task down
It splits a complex goal into sub-tasks and figures out which can run in parallel and which depend on others.
Assigning and coordinating
It hands each sub-task to the sub-agent that's good at that area, tracks progress, and manages dependencies.
Assembling and gatekeeping
It merges the results and sends back anything that doesn't meet the bar.

What are the benefits?

Division of labor means specialization
Each sub-agent focuses on one thing, which beats one big model trying to do everything.
Parallel speed
Independent sub-tasks run at the same time, cutting total wall-clock time.
Easy to extend
To add a capability, just plug in another sub-agent — the supervisor's framework barely changes.

What's the cost?

An extra "manager" layer means extra communication, latency and token spend. And if the supervisor misjudges, it can drag the whole team off course.

Bottom line: the supervisor pattern gives an agent team a manager that splits, assigns and assembles the work end to end.