Choose how a team works together

When you create a team, the Studio asks How will this team work? The pattern, which the Studio also calls the mode of the team, is the way the members of the team work together. There are five.

The five patterns

Pattern	How the members work
Sequential	The members work one after another, in the order of the team. Each one receives what the previous one produced.
Concurrent	All the members work at the same time on the same request. Their results are gathered when everyone has finished.
Handoff	One member is active at a time. It can pass the request to another member, among those the team allows.
Group Chat	The members take turns in one shared conversation, up to a maximum number of turns. Each member reads what the others said.
Manager-led	A manager supervises the work. It sends the request to one member at a time, reads the result, then sends another member or gives the final answer.

When to use each one

Sequential: the work is a chain, and each step builds on the one before. Example: a researcher gathers facts, a writer writes the note, a reviewer corrects it. This is the simplest pattern, and a good first choice.

Concurrent: you want several independent opinions or parts at once. Example: three specialists each study the same contract, one for the legal side, one for the costs, one for the risks.

Handoff: the request must reach the right specialist, and you do not know in advance which one. Example: a front desk understands a customer request and passes it to a billing specialist or to a technical specialist.

Group Chat: the members must react to each other. Example: a writer and a critic improve a text over a few turns.

Manager-led: the work has many parts, and someone must decide what to do next. Example: the Trip Manager Team showcase, where a manager sends the flight, the hotel and the transfers to different specialists.

What each pattern needs

Pattern	Members	Order	Manager	Links to draw
Sequential	At least one	The order in which you added them	No	None
Concurrent	At least two	Does not matter	No	None
Handoff	At least one	The member that starts is chosen from the request	No	None, unless you want to limit who may pass the work to whom
Group Chat	At least two	They speak in the order in which you added them	No	None
Manager-led	At least two: the manager and one other	The manager decides	Yes: the member at the top position	None

How the canvas shows each pattern

The drawing of a team follows the pattern you chose. Each member is a hexagon with its name under it.

Pattern	What you see
Sequential	A line joins each member to the next one, in the order of the work.
Concurrent	A dark hexagon on the left, The brief, sends the request to every member, who stand in a column. A dark hexagon on the right, Merged, gathers the results into one report.
Handoff	No line at all: anyone can hand the work to anyone. The member that starts is marked Starts here.
Group Chat	The members hang under one shared bar: they share one conversation.
Manager-led	The manager, a larger dark hexagon, is on top, and lines go down to the members it sends work to.

Members that you put in a group are drawn together on a soft tint, with the name of the group: see Name, group and give an icon to team members.

In every pattern, give each member a clear role. In Handoff and Manager-led, the choice of who works next is made from the roles.

When not to use a pattern

Sequential: not for work that needs a decision about who goes next.
Concurrent: not for steps that need the result of another step.
Group Chat: not for work with a clear sequence, or with one precise thing to deliver.
Manager-led: choose Handoff instead when the specialists should decide among themselves who goes next.

What the team answers

When a team has finished, it gives one answer. It is what the execution of the team shows, what a step Team gives to a workflow, and what the team gives when it is a member of another team. How the answer is made depends on the pattern.

Pattern	The answer of the team
Sequential	The answer of the last member.
Concurrent	The answer of every member, each one after the name of the member (`Flights:`, then its answer, then `Hotels:`, and so on), in the order of the team.
Handoff	The answer of the last member who answered: the one who handled the request. A member that only passed the request on is not the answer.
Group Chat	The last answer of the discussion.
Manager-led	The final answer of the manager. If the manager ended without one, the last answer given.

A team also gives the named outputs of the member whose answer is its answer, the one who concludes. In a Manager-led team, it is the manager. A Concurrent team gives none, because nobody concludes there. See Use an agent or a team as a step.

Positions on the canvas

In a team, each place on the canvas is a position, and the pattern gives each position its meaning. In a Manager-led team, the position at the top is the manager, and the positions below are the members it sends work to. In a Sequential team, the positions follow the order of the work.

To put a member at a position, drag it from the list of members (the tab Add member) onto the canvas. In a Manager-led team, the first member you add takes the top position.
To exchange two members, drag one onto the other: they swap places.

What a Manager-led team needs

A manager. It is always the member at the top position, the first one. Nothing else names it: there is no setting for the manager.
At least one worker, at a position below.

A team that has only a manager, or no member at the top, is refused when you run it.

Good to know

The pattern of a team is shown at the top right of its editor.
A member of a team can be an agent, another team or a workflow.
Keep teams small. A team with many members is harder to follow, and each member that works uses the AI model.

Next step

Create a team of agents, or run a team and read its work.