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Multi-agent research

One-line description. A lead agent plans a research task, persists its plan to a memory sidecar, spawns a row of parallel search subagents (each running its own search-and-think loop over a different aspect of the question), synthesizes their findings, then hands the synthesized draft to a dedicated citation subagent that attributes sources before the final report goes back to the user. This is Anthropic's Research-feature shape. The parts that distinguish it from a plain orchestrator fan-out are the memory sidecar, the per-subagent iteration loop, and the post-processing citation stage.

Default diagram type

Structural flowchart — central orchestrator with two flanking peers plus a subagent row. The topology has one big star (the lead agent) with a memory store on one side and a citation subagent on the other, and a row of interchangeable search subagents underneath. A plain fan-out misses memory; a vertical queue-backed worker pool misses the pre/post peers. Draw the lead agent large and central, flank it with memory + citations, and put search subagents in a horizontal row below.

Alternate types:

Sequence when the user wants to show turn order — LeadResearcher → Memory (save plan) → Subagent1/2 (parallel dispatch) → LeadResearcher (synthesize) → CitationAgent → User. This is the shape of the process diagram in Anthropic's own post.

Palette

Four role ramps (at the design-system.md limit for multi-agent diagrams):

c-gray — user box, final report, structural labels.
c-teal — lead agent / orchestrator. The primary role anchors the strongest color.
c-purple — search subagents, all the same color. Instances of one role share a ramp; they are interchangeable workers, not distinct actors.
c-coral — citation subagent. Distinct from the search pool because it is a different specialist running at a different stage.
c-amber — memory store. Amber is the standing convention for a retriever/store sidecar, which also prevents readers from mistaking memory for a third agent role.

Legend is required — three distinct non-gray role ramps plus the store color.

Sub-pattern

flowchart.md → Fan-out + aggregator (simple mode) for the lead ↔ subagents channel, plus flowchart.md → Self-loops (borrowed from the state-machine section) on each search subagent to show its internal search/think iteration. The flanking peers (memory, citation) are bidirectional satellites off the lead agent — not part of the fan-out.

Mermaid reference

flowchart TB
    U[User query] --> L[Lead agent<br/>orchestrator]
    L <--> M[(Memory<br/>plan + context)]
    L <--> C[Citation subagent]
    L --> S1[Search subagent A]
    L --> S2[Search subagent B]
    L --> S3[Search subagent C]
    S1 --> L
    S2 --> L
    S3 --> L
    S1 -. search + think .-> S1
    S2 -. search + think .-> S2
    S3 -. search + think .-> S3
    L --> R[Final report]
    R --> U

The distinctive edges vs. a plain orchestrator fan-out: the bidirectional L <--> M sidecar, the L <--> C post-processor, and the three self-loops on the search subagents.

Baoyu SVG plan

Central lead agent with two flanking peers on the top row and three parallel search subagents in a row below. User box on the far left.

viewBox: 0 0 820 460
User — c-gray, x=30 y=150 w=120 h=64, two-line (User, Submits query).
Lead agent — c-teal, x=310 y=90 w=260 h=180, multi-line block:
- Title Lead agent at (440, 120) class th.
- Subtitle (orchestrator) at (440, 140) class ts.
- Tool stack at y=178, 198, 218, 238, class ts, centered: Tools:, search · MCP · memory, run_subagent, complete_task.
Citations subagent — c-coral, x=170 y=156 w=120 h=60, two-line (Citations, subagent).
Memory — c-amber, x=590 y=156 w=200 h=60, two-line (Memory, plan + context).
Search subagent row (3 workers, all c-purple, same size):
- Search subagent A, x=200 y=340 w=160 h=64, two-line (Search subagent, Aspect A).
- Search subagent B, x=390 y=340 w=160 h=64, two-line (Search subagent, Aspect B).
- Search subagent C, x=580 y=340 w=160 h=64, two-line (Search subagent, Aspect C).

Arrow plan.

User ↔ Lead — stacked request/response pair: user → lead solid arr M 150 174 L 310 174 labeled query; lead → user dashed arr-alt M 310 198 L 150 198 labeled final report.
Lead ↔ Citations — short bidirectional pair on lead's left edge: M 290 180 L 310 180 (in), M 310 204 L 290 204 (out). Both solid arr.
Lead ↔ Memory — matching pair on lead's right edge: M 570 180 L 590 180, M 590 204 L 570 204.
Lead → each subagent — vertical L-bends from lead's bottom edge (y=270) via a shared channel at y=305. Dispatch arrows anchor on lead at (360, 270), (470, 270), (520, 270) and land at each subagent's top-center (280, 340), (470, 340), (660, 340). Middle arrow is straight; outer two L-bend through the channel.
Subagent → Lead — matching return arrows offset 16px to the right of each dispatch arrow, using arr-alt to mark the return.
Self-loop on each search subagent — per flowchart.md → Self-loops, a short arc off the right edge: M {x+w} {y+16} C {x+w+24} {y+8}, {x+w+24} {y+h-8}, {x+w} {y+h-16} class arr, with a ts label search + think at ({x+w+28}, {y+h/2}). Repeat for all three subagents. This is the key visual that distinguishes research subagents from plain workers.

Legend (bottom, required):

[■] Lead agent   [■] Search subagent   [■] Citation subagent   [■] Memory   [──] dispatch   [- -] return

Gotchas.

Do not color the 3 search subagents differently — they are one pool, not three roles. Rainbow-ing them turns a homogeneous worker pool into a role fan-out and misrepresents the pattern.
Keep memory amber even though it is a peer of lead — the store convention keeps readers from reading it as a third agent.
The citation subagent runs at the end logically, but the architecture view draws it as a peer of the lead agent (not a downstream successor), matching Anthropic's own diagram. If the user asks for the turn-order view instead, switch to the sequence alternate.

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