Domain 2 of 3 · Chapter 8 of 15

Design multi-agent solutions in Copilot Studio

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Included in this chapter:

  • Where the multi-agent decision actually lands
  • The signal to split, and the numbers that are not it
  • Child agents: one deployment, its own orchestration
  • What the main agent does when a child agent finishes
  • Connected agents: independent lifecycle, local description
  • Choosing the coordination pattern
  • Choosing the connection option by where the agent was built
  • What actually crosses on every delegation
  • Instruction design so exactly one agent speaks
  • Explicit call sites: topic redirect and instructions
  • Governing delegation across the trust boundary
  • Testing a multi-agent design before you ship it
  • How these choices show up in questions

Where a capability lives, and what that choice costs

ConsiderationSingle agentChild agentConnected agent
Where it is definedTopics, tools and knowledge on one agentInside the main agent, on its Agents pageA separately published agent the main agent connects to
Who owns and releases itOne team, one releaseThe same team that owns the main agent; deploys with itCan be a different team, with its own ALM process
Orchestration and tool budgetOne orchestration; 128 tools maximum, 25 to 30 recommendedIts own orchestration and its own set of up to 128 toolsIts own orchestration, its own tools and knowledge
Conversation contextSingle context throughoutShares the main agent's contextConversation history passed by default; can be cleared
Added latencyNone beyond the single orchestrationAn added layer of orchestrationOrchestration hops through a separate orchestration layer
Reuse by other agentsNot reusable as an agentNot published separately or reusable elsewhereUsable by multiple main agents, if it has no connected agents itself
Transcripts and governanceOne set of transcripts and policiesActivity appears in the same session as the main agentSeparate transcripts and policies; sessions must be correlated
The signal that says choose thisSingle intent or task, one cohesive team, no reuseLogical grouping inside one solution, no separate publicationIndependent ownership, settings, publication or reuse

Decision tree

Independent owner, release, settings or reuse? Yes No Must every step run in a fixed order? Routing degrading after sharpening descriptions? Yes No Yes No Connected agents workflow-oriented pattern Connected agents orchestrator/subagent pattern Child agent Single agent Subagent selection requires generative orchestration
Cheat sheet

Cheat sheet

  • Use child agents for in-solution focused responsibilities
  • Use connected agents for independent lifecycle boundaries
  • Split agents when action discrimination degrades
  • Accept orchestration overhead only for a real boundary
  • Do not reuse a main agent that already has connected agents
  • Give each connected agent a distinct routing description
  • Design the conversation-context handoff deliberately
  • Make the parent the sole final responder
  • Test routing with domain-mismatch requests
  • Insert an agent reference for explicit instruction-driven routing
  • Validate citations after an agent handoff
  • Do not let delegation bypass authorization boundaries
  • Correlate parent and connected-agent telemetry
  • Disable a connected agent without disconnecting it
  • Resume a topic after an explicit agent redirect

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Also tested in

References

  1. Add a child agent - Microsoft Copilot Studio
  2. Orchestrate agent behavior with generative AI
  3. Add other agents overview - Microsoft Copilot Studio
  4. Understand multi-agent architectures in Copilot Studio
  5. Add tools to custom agents (limitations on tools in agents)
  6. Design multi-agent solutions using child agents
  7. Connect to an existing Copilot Studio agent
  8. Orchestrator and subagent multi-agent patterns
  9. Design multi-agent solutions using connected agents
  10. Multi-agent patterns (agent architecture guidance)
  11. Multi-agent orchestration patterns and best practices
  12. Apply generative orchestration capabilities