Let one agent distribute the work

The larger your project gets, the longer your chat with your agent becomes. In the beginning, everything goes smoothly. After a few hours, it suggests building something it already built half an hour ago. And you are sitting there waiting for it to finish one task before you can start on the next. You might recognise this from your own projects.

In a vibe coding training course, I mentioned that I have been doing this differently for a few weeks now. You no longer let one agent build everything. You turn it into an orchestrator, which distributes the work among other agents. And you only talk to it.

Copy the prompt at the bottom of this article. That will turn your agent into an orchestrator.

From developer to orchestrator

It starts with one sentence. I tell my agent: 'You are now the orchestrator and this is the plan.' And I add that it does not code itself. It delegates the tasks to sub-agents or to agents in other sessions. Claude Code is really built for this now, and Craft Agents too. You then see how it assigns tasks to other agents, and they complete them.

In the workshop, a participant had a step-by-step plan created from the documents of a project. I then shared that when in doubt, you can also say that your agent is the orchestrator, and therefore does not do the developing itself. Then it distributes the steps of that plan among other agents.

That also helps prevent forgetting. An agent that works in the same chat for a very long time starts to lose things, even within its context window. I would therefore start a new session as often as possible. An orchestrator does that for you, because it manages the sessions of the other agents.

Frequently asked questions

What does an orchestrator agent do?

An orchestrator distributes the tasks of a plan among other agents or sessions. It follows up on who is working on what and reports the status to you. It does not build anything itself, and you only talk to it.

Do agents not overwrite each other's work then?

That risk exists, but in practice it usually goes well. Ask your orchestrator to never let two agents work on the same files at the same time. And keep a close eye on it the first time.

How do I ensure my agents do not wait for me at every doubt?

Let your orchestrator first look at what it already knows about you and your work, and what it can decide for itself from that. Start with small decisions and expand step by step.

Where do I learn to build with agents myself?

In the Vibe Coding with AI and AI Agents training courses, you work hands-on with agents that build a project together. You can find the dates at Workshops & Events.

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