Vol. IV · Multi-Agent Architectures · IV.5
Hierarchical Supervisor
A supervisor node routes to worker nodes and back until a completion condition. LangGraph's most copied multi-agent topology — and the one that actually checkpoints.
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Doctrine
- Put the supervisor in a graph so the path is inspectable after the fact.
- Worker nodes are themselves graphs or tools, not nested magic.
- Completion is an edge to END, not a vibe.
Why graphs beat chatrooms here
You get streaming, persistence, time-travel, and human-in-the-loop interrupts for free if you are on LangGraph. DeerFlow and Deep Agents sit on this. Google ADK's hierarchical delegation is the same topology with Gemini-native eval/deploy.
Anti-patterns
- Supervisor with the same tool set as every worker.
- No checkpoint, so a twenty-minute research run dies with the process.