Keeping Agents Narrow

One job per agent

Agents with long instructions covering many jobs and many tools are hard to test and fail unpredictably. Keep each agent narrow: one job, a short instruction set, only the tools for that job, and a clear output. Narrow agents can use cheaper models, are easier to evaluate in isolation, and can be improved without breaking the rest of the workflow. If an agent's instructions keep growing with exceptions, split it.

A kitchen brigade

A restaurant does not have one cook doing everything; the grill, sauce and pastry stations each do one job well, and the head chef coordinates.

Count tools per agent

If an agent has more than a handful of tools, check whether it is really several agents.

Quick check: What is a sign an agent should be split?

• It uses a small model
• It has one clear output
• Its instructions keep growing with unrelated jobs and exceptions
• It has two tools