# Orchestrator-Workers

> Orchestrator-workers is a pattern in which a central model dynamically breaks a task into subtasks, delegates them to worker model calls or subagents, and synthesizes their results.

- Identifier: PTL-0068
- Category: Agents & Orchestration
- Canonical URL: https://protologue.com/t/orchestrator-workers/
- Also known as: subagents, multi-agent orchestration, supervisor pattern

## Description

Unlike parallelization, the subtasks are not fixed in advance but decided by the orchestrator for each input, which suits tasks such as multi-file code changes or broad research.

## Broader terms

- [Agentic Workflow](https://protologue.com/t/agentic-workflow/)

## Related terms

- [AI Agent](https://protologue.com/t/ai-agent/)
- [Parallelization](https://protologue.com/t/parallelization/)
- [Meta-Prompting](https://protologue.com/t/meta-prompting/)

## Sources

- Anthropic (2024). Building effective agents. https://www.anthropic.com/research/building-effective-agents

## Cite this entry

Protologue. (2026). Orchestrator-Workers. In Protologue: A Taxonomy of Prompting and LLM Techniques (v1.0.0, PTL-0068). https://protologue.com/t/orchestrator-workers/

License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)