Learn · Multi-agent
Claude Code orchestrator: a boss agent that delegates to the rest
Running five agents is easy. Coordinating them without babysitting each one is the real problem. An orchestrator agent plans the work and hands it out for you — here’s how it works.
An orchestrator (or “boss”) agent plans and delegates instead of coding itself. In The Termi Protocol you promote one agent to Orchestrator and drop it a goal; it breaks the goal into tasks and assigns them to your idle agents automatically — queueing work when everyone’s busy, reassigning if a worker crashes, and even hiring more workers when the backlog grows.
Why running many agents gets hard
Starting several AI coding agents in parallel is trivial — open a few sessions, point each at a folder. The pain shows up next: “do I have to go into each agent one by one and give it a prompt?” That was the exact question from a user that led to this feature. Without coordination you become the message bus, copy-pasting tasks between windows, remembering who’s free, restarting whoever crashed.
What an orchestrator agent is
An orchestrator — a boss, a lead, a manager, pick your metaphor — is an agent whose job is to plan and delegate rather than write code. You hand it a goal; it decomposes the goal into tasks and assigns each to a worker agent, tracks who’s doing what, and tells you when the whole thing is done. The workers stay ordinary agents; only the boss needs the extra powers.
How the boss works in The Termi Protocol
Promote any agent to Orchestrator when you create it, or from its menu, and drop it a goal. From there it runs on its own:
- Delegates automatically. The boss has a delegate tool that steers your idle agents directly — no per-agent prompting.
- Queues when busy. If every worker is occupied, or a task touches a file another agent has locked, the work goes into a queue and dispatches the moment someone frees up.
- Recovers from crashes. If a worker dies mid-task, its work is put back and reassigned, so the run doesn’t stall.
- Hires when short-handed. When the backlog grows and there aren’t enough workers, the office can spin up more, up to a cap.
- Runs a goal queue. Leave it several goals; it advances them wave by wave without you stepping in.
Underneath, agents share task boards and file locks so they don’t step on each other, and every hand-off is logged to the activity feed. You set the goal; the office runs itself.
See it run
The boss plans, delegates and reports — the other agents just get to work. You can read the origin of the feature on the fixes page.
Download The Termi Protocol Multi-agent coding, explained
FAQ
Can Claude Code run multiple agents at once?
Yes — you can run several sessions in parallel, each in its own working directory. The hard part is coordinating them without prompting each by hand, which is what an orchestrator layer handles.
What is an orchestrator (boss) agent?
An agent whose job is to plan and delegate rather than code. You give it a goal; it splits the goal into tasks, hands each to a worker, and reports when it’s done.
How do you run multiple Claude Code agents in parallel?
Give each its own project or worktree so they don’t collide, then coordinate them. In The Termi Protocol you promote one agent to Orchestrator and drop it a goal; it delegates to idle agents, queues, reassigns and can hire more.
Can one AI agent assign tasks to other agents?
Yes, with orchestration. The boss agent has a delegate tool that steers idle workers, plus a goal queue, file locks and shared task boards.