Swarm Orchestration

What This Skill Does

Orchestrates multi-agent swarms using agentic-flow's advanced coordination system. Supports mesh, hierarchical, and adaptive topologies with automatic task distribution, load balancing, and fault tolerance.

Prerequisites

• agentic-flow v1.5.11+

• Node.js 18+

• Understanding of distributed systems (helpful)

Quick Start

Initialize swarm

npx agentic-flow hooks swarm-init --topology mesh --max-agents 5

Spawn agents

npx agentic-flow hooks agent-spawn --type coder npx agentic-flow hooks agent-spawn --type tester npx agentic-flow hooks agent-spawn --type reviewer

Orchestrate task

npx agentic-flow hooks task-orchestrate
--task "Build REST API with tests"
--mode parallel

Topology Patterns

1. Mesh (Peer-to-Peer)

// Equal peers, distributed decision-making await swarm.init({ topology: 'mesh', agents: ['coder', 'tester', 'reviewer'], communication: 'broadcast' });

2. Hierarchical (Queen-Worker)

// Centralized coordination, specialized workers await swarm.init({ topology: 'hierarchical', queen: 'architect', workers: ['backend-dev', 'frontend-dev', 'db-designer'] });

3. Adaptive (Dynamic)

// Automatically switches topology based on task await swarm.init({ topology: 'adaptive', optimization: 'task-complexity' });

Task Orchestration

Parallel Execution

// Execute tasks concurrently const results = await swarm.execute({ tasks: [ { agent: 'coder', task: 'Implement API endpoints' }, { agent: 'frontend', task: 'Build UI components' }, { agent: 'tester', task: 'Write test suite' } ], mode: 'parallel', timeout: 300000 // 5 minutes });

Pipeline Execution

// Sequential pipeline with dependencies await swarm.pipeline([ { stage: 'design', agent: 'architect' }, { stage: 'implement', agent: 'coder', after: 'design' }, { stage: 'test', agent: 'tester', after: 'implement' }, { stage: 'review', agent: 'reviewer', after: 'test' } ]);

Adaptive Execution

// Let swarm decide execution strategy await swarm.autoOrchestrate({ goal: 'Build production-ready API', constraints: { maxTime: 3600, maxAgents: 8, quality: 'high' } });

Memory Coordination

// Share state across swarm await swarm.memory.store('api-schema', { endpoints: [...], models: [...] });

// Agents read shared memory const schema = await swarm.memory.retrieve('api-schema');

Advanced Features

Load Balancing

// Automatic work distribution await swarm.enableLoadBalancing({ strategy: 'dynamic', metrics: ['cpu', 'memory', 'task-queue'] });

Fault Tolerance

// Handle agent failures await swarm.setResiliency({ retry: { maxAttempts: 3, backoff: 'exponential' }, fallback: 'reassign-task' });

Performance Monitoring

// Track swarm metrics const metrics = await swarm.getMetrics(); // { throughput, latency, success_rate, agent_utilization }

Integration with Hooks

Pre-task coordination

npx agentic-flow hooks pre-task --description "Build API"

Post-task synchronization

npx agentic-flow hooks post-task --task-id "task-123"

Session restore

npx agentic-flow hooks session-restore --session-id "swarm-001"

Best Practices

• Start small: Begin with 2-3 agents, scale up

• Use memory: Share context through swarm memory

• Monitor metrics: Track performance and bottlenecks

• Enable hooks: Automatic coordination and sync

• Set timeouts: Prevent hung tasks

Troubleshooting

Issue: Agents not coordinating

Solution: Verify memory access and enable hooks

Issue: Poor performance

Solution: Check topology (use adaptive) and enable load balancing

Learn More

• Swarm Guide: docs/swarm/orchestration.md

• Topology Patterns: docs/swarm/topologies.md

• Hooks Integration: docs/hooks/coordination.md