Task Delegation is the mechanism by which an agent assigns a sub-task to another agent or tool deemed more capable, available or specialised for that work. In multi-agent and agentic systems it underpins division of labour, allowing a coordinating agent to decompose a goal and route components to subordinate executors. Effective delegation requires shared task representation, capability awareness and result aggregation.
Overview
- Task delegation lets agentic systems scale beyond a single model’s competence by routing work to the most appropriate executor. A planner or orchestrator decomposes a goal, identifies which agent or tool can satisfy each part based on advertised capabilities, dispatches the work and reintegrates the returned results. It depends on a shared communication language and on mechanisms for monitoring progress and handling failure or reassignment.
Key aspects
- Goal decomposition into delegatable sub-tasks
- Capability matching to select an appropriate executor
- Communication of task, context and acceptance criteria
- Result aggregation and quality verification
- Failure handling, retries and reassignment
Mechanisms
- Goal decomposition into delegatable sub-tasks
- Capability matching to select an appropriate executor
- Communication of task, context and acceptance criteria
Applications
- Orchestrating specialised tool-using agents
- Hierarchical planner-executor agent architectures
- Routing queries to domain-expert models
- Distributed problem solving across agent teams
- Human-in-the-loop escalation and handoff