// CLAUDE AGENTS · MULTI-AGENT TEAMS

Claude Agent Teams: Hierarchical Multi-Agent Orchestration

Move beyond single-agent scripts to orchestrated multi-agent teams: defining distinct roles for Architect, Coder, Security Auditor, and Reviewer to solve large-scale enterprise engineering problems collaboratively.

1. Multi-Agent Team Topologies

Effective multi-agent architectures mirror high-performing human engineering squads. Rather than having one model attempt everything, distinct agents take specialized responsibilities with explicit handoff criteria:

flowchart TD
    UserReq[Enterprise Feature Specification] --> Lead[Lead Architect Agent: Claude Opus 5.5]
    Lead --> TaskGraph[Generate Directed Acyclic Graph DAG]
    TaskGraph --> Dev[Full-Stack Engineer: Claude Sonnet 5.5]
    Dev --> TestGen[QA Test Engineer: Claude Sonnet 5.5]
    Dev --> CodeArtifacts[Code Changes & Schemas]
    TestGen --> TestSuite[Automated Test Suite]
    CodeArtifacts --> SecReview[Security Auditor: Claude Sonnet 5.5]
    TestSuite --> SecReview
    SecReview -- Vulnerability Detected --> Dev
    SecReview -- Approved --> Lead
    Lead --> PR[Final Pull Request & RFC Synthesis]

2. Specialist Role Definitions

Role A · Strategy

Lead Architect (Opus 5.5)

Deconstructs broad requests into atomic subtasks, verifies schema compatibility, and makes binding architectural trade-offs.

Role B · Construction

Core Developer (Sonnet 5.5)

Writes production-grade, typed implementations adhering to codebase conventions and design patterns.

Role C · Verification

QA & Testing (Sonnet 5.5)

Generates adversarial test cases, edge condition mocks, and stress-tests boundary limits.

Role D · Compliance

Security Auditor (Sonnet 5.5)

Audits code for OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, unauthorized credential egress, and cryptographic weaknesses.

3. Tutorial: Inter-Agent Handoff Protocol in Python

Here is an orchestration engine dispatching structured messages between an Architect agent and a Developer agent with typed JSON handoffs:

multi_agent_team.py

import os
from anthropic import Anthropic

client = Anthropic(api_key=os.environ["ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"])

def run_agent_squad(task_description: str):
    # Step 1: Architect decomposes the task
    architect_resp = client.messages.create(
        model="claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219",
        max_tokens=2048,
        system="You are the Lead Software Architect. Break down features into explicit technical specifications.",
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": f"Architect a solution for: {task_description}"}]
    )
    spec = architect_resp.content[0].text
    print(f"\n[ARCHITECT SPECIFICATION]:\n{spec[:300]}...\n")

    # Step 2: Coder receives spec and implements code
    coder_resp = client.messages.create(
        model="claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219",
        max_tokens=4096,
        system="You are a Senior Python Engineer. Implement the exact architectural spec with robust typing.",
        messages=[
            {"role": "user", "content": f"Implement this specification in production Python code:\n\n{spec}"}
        ]
    )
    code = coder_resp.content[0].text
    print(f"\n[ENGINEER IMPLEMENTATION]:\n{code[:300]}...\n")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    run_agent_squad("High-throughput token bucket rate limiter with Redis backend.")

1. Multi-Agent Team Topologies

2. Specialist Role Definitions

3. Tutorial: Inter-Agent Handoff Protocol in Python

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