A planner agent routes tasks to specialist sub-agents — each with scoped tools, isolated context windows, and typed result contracts that prevent schema drift across the pipeline.

Structured Pydantic handoff objects between agents with versioned schemas. Shared state stored in Postgres or Redis — no implicit context assumptions between agents.

Tasks that can run concurrently are dispatched in parallel using async fan-out patterns, then merged with typed reducers that handle partial failures gracefully.

Each agent has an independent retry policy, circuit breaker, and fallback path. One sub-agent failure does not cascade — the orchestrator reroutes or escalates based on your business rules.

Configurable approval gates at high-stakes steps — the system pauses, presents a structured summary, and waits for explicit sign-off before continuing.

Full trace logging across every agent, tool call, and handoff. Token cost, latency, and quality metrics per agent — not just aggregate pipeline numbers.