Context Layer: Agent Workflow Orchestration
Shared Language & Canonical Terms
| Term | Definition | Field |
|---|---|---|
| Agent | Autonomous entity that perceives state, decides actions, executes | Multi-Agent Systems |
| Workflow Orchestration | Graph-based control of task sequencing, routing, state persistence | Workflow Orchestration |
| Agent Communication Protocol (ACP/MCP) | Standardized interface for agent discovery, authorization, tool access | Agent Communication Protocols |
| Process Mining | Extraction and conformance analysis of workflows from execution logs | BPM |
| Task Decomposition | Breaking high-level goals into dependency-ordered sub-goals | Agentic Planning |
| Manager Agent | Orchestrating agent that assigns tasks and adapts execution dynamically | Human-AI Teaming |
Field Decomposition (MECE)
| # | Field | Scope | Key Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) | Coordination, protocols, emergent behavior | How do agents coordinate autonomously? |
| 2 | Agent Workflow Orchestration | Task graphs, state machines, LLM-native patterns | How are multi-step workflows composed and executed? |
| 3 | Agent Communication Protocols | MCP, ACP, A2A; discovery and interop | How do agents discover and call tools/services? |
| 4 | Process Mining & BPM | Workflow definition, logging, conformance, discovery | How are workflows traced, verified, and improved? |
| 5 | Agentic Planning & Task Decomposition | Hierarchical reasoning, dependencies, partial failure | How do agents reason about goal-to-subtask mapping? |
| 6 | Human-AI Teaming | Manager-agent pattern, governance, transparency | How are humans and agents coordinated in a workflow? |
Provenance Rules
- Sources prioritized: peer-reviewed papers (arxiv, IEEE), official standards documentation, strong practitioner engineering writing
- Each field claim must cite its source in
source-ledger.yaml - Dates: when a source is time-sensitive (e.g., 2024–2025 tooling), record the year
- Verification: live-web-verified (checked recently) or training-knowledge-only (from Claude's training)
Repository Placement
IAIP/prototypes/artefacts/
alt2github-orchestrate-multiple-agent-communication-thru-git--260526-*/
foundations/agent-workflow-orchestration/
README.md
context-layer.md
intent-understanding.md
synthesis.md
source-ledger.yaml
Related Artifacts & Crosswalks
- Miadi repository: may reference this packet for multi-agent architecture decisions
- Mighty Eagle: registry for cross-repo stewardship contracts
- QMD: federated indexing of foundations packets across IAIP, Miadi, coaia-agent