name: Oracle and Workers
id: oracle-workers
source: agentic-patterns.com
description: >
  A single orchestrator (Oracle) analyzes the mission, decomposes it into
  sub-tasks, and dispatches specialized workers. Workers report back to
  the Oracle, which synthesizes results into a unified deliverable.
topology: hierarchical
communication: hub-and-spoke
when_to_use:
  - "Mission has clearly decomposable sub-tasks"
  - "Tasks are independent and can run in parallel"
  - "Need a single synthesized output or report"
  - "Security audit with multiple focus areas"
  - "Architecture review requiring diverse expertise"
when_not_to_use:
  - "Tasks require real-time negotiation between agents"
  - "The decomposition itself is the hard problem"
  - "Very small scope that one agent can handle"
pros:
  - "Clear accountability — Oracle owns the outcome"
  - "Parallelizable — workers run independently"
  - "Lower token cost — workers don't share full context"
cons:
  - "Oracle is single point of failure"
  - "Workers can't course-correct each other"
  - "Oracle context grows with number of workers"
estimated_token_cost: medium
estimated_agents: "3-6"
roles_suggested:
  oracle: security_architect
  workers: [pentester, auditor, researcher]
elo_lead_selection: true
