Chapter 6: Multi-Agent and Advanced Patterns

Welcome to Chapter 6: Multi-Agent and Advanced Patterns. In this part of Strands Agents Tutorial: Model-Driven Agent Systems with Native MCP Support, you will build an intuitive mental model first, then move into concrete implementation details and practical production tradeoffs.

This chapter explores advanced usage beyond basic single-agent workflows.

Learning Goals

• compose multiple agents for specialized workflows
• evaluate when to add streaming or autonomous patterns
• balance complexity with maintainability
• define escalation paths for human oversight

Advanced Pattern Areas

• multi-agent decomposition by domain responsibility
• bidirectional streaming experiences for real-time interactions
• hybrid tool + MCP designs for broader capability coverage

Source References

• Strands Documentation Home
• Strands Experimental Bidi Streaming Overview
• Strands Examples

Summary

You now have a roadmap for scaling Strands workflows without losing architectural control.

Next: Chapter 7: Deployment and Production Operations

Source Code Walkthrough

Use the following upstream sources to verify multi-agent and advanced pattern details while reading this chapter:

• src/strands/multiagent/ — the multi-agent coordination module containing swarm patterns, agent-as-tool composition, and pipeline orchestration primitives.
• src/strands/multiagent/swarm.py — the swarm implementation that enables parallel agent execution with shared context and result aggregation.

Suggested trace strategy:

• review src/strands/multiagent/ to understand the available coordination patterns (swarm, pipeline, agent-as-tool)
• trace how swarm.py manages concurrent agent execution and merges outputs
• check the agent-as-tool pattern to understand how one agent can be registered as a callable tool for another agent

How These Components Connect

flowchart LR
    A[Orchestrator agent] --> B[multiagent/ coordination]
    B --> C[Swarm: parallel sub-agents]
    B --> D[Pipeline: sequential agent chain]
    C --> E[Aggregated result]
    D --> E