Agent Systems: Parallelization Pattern

Intent

Solve independent subproblems concurrently and aggregate the results.

Outline

1. Recurring problem: one task contains independent work that need not wait for the other branches.
2. Structure: input → fan-out → independent agents → aggregate → output.
3. Stable interface: the subproblem specification and aggregation format.
4. Variable implementation: the number and type of parallel workers.
5. Strength: lower wall-clock time and broader coverage.
6. Risks: duplicated work, inconsistent assumptions, and difficult aggregation.
7. State when parallelization is inappropriate: dependent steps or shared mutable state.

Suggested figure

04-parallelization.svg in the Agent design pattern illustration folder.