ExAgent.Patterns.Subagents (ExAgent v0.3.0)

Centralized orchestration pattern.

A main agent invokes specialized subagents as tool calls. Subagents are transient, stateless processes with isolated contexts - they run a single LLM call and return the result without maintaining state.

Summary

Types

subagent_spec()

Functions

invoke_subagent(spec, query)

Invokes a subagent synchronously with a single query.

run(specs_with_inputs, opts \\ [])

Invokes several subagents in parallel, each with its own input.

tools(specs)

Builds one tool per subagent, for an orchestrator agent to call.

Types

subagent_spec()

@type subagent_spec() :: %{
  name: String.t(),
  description: String.t(),
  provider: struct(),
  system_prompt: String.t() | nil,
  tools: [ExAgent.Tool.t()]
}

Functions

invoke_subagent(spec, query)

@spec invoke_subagent(subagent_spec(), String.t()) ::
  {:ok, String.t()} | {:error, term()}

Invokes a subagent synchronously with a single query.

Creates a fresh context, calls Provider.chat/3 directly (no GenServer), and returns the assistant's response content.

run(specs_with_inputs, opts \\ [])

@spec run(
  [{subagent_spec(), String.t()}],
  keyword()
) :: [{String.t(), {:ok, String.t()} | {:error, term()}}]

Invokes several subagents in parallel, each with its own input.

Returns a list of {spec_name, result} tuples.

tools(specs)

@spec tools([subagent_spec()]) :: [ExAgent.Tool.t()]

Builds one tool per subagent, for an orchestrator agent to call.

Each subagent becomes a tool whose function spawns an ephemeral LLM call. The tool's parameters accept a "query" string.