Orchestration Concepts

Understand the theory behind AI agent orchestration.

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Core Concepts

The Loop Pattern

The foundation of all orchestration: read, execute, verify, repeat.

Verification Strategies

External vs internal verification, confidence scoring, hybrid approaches.

Circuit Breakers

Safety mechanisms to prevent infinite loops and runaway costs.

State Management

Persisting state for reliability and debugging.

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Advanced Patterns

Self-Play & Oscillation

Internal debate patterns for quality assurance (DIALECTIC, proposer/critic).

Gating Mechanisms

Pre and post-condition enforcement with rollback.

Drift Prevention

Keeping agents aligned with original intent over multiple iterations.

Multi-Agent Coordination

Pipelines, swarms, and role-based teams.

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Framework Comparison

Provider Overview

Compare LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen, Semantic Kernel, Haystack, DSPy.

SPINE Integration

Context engineering and MCP-native orchestration.

Minna Memory

Cross-session persistence for AI agents.

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The 8me Philosophy

When to Use What

Complexity	Solution
Simple tasks	Basic loop (Tier 0-1)
Structured output	Tool calling (Tier 1)
Claude Code integration	Skills (Tier 2)
External state/tools	MCP Server (Tier 3)
Complex orchestration	Frameworks or SPINE

Build vs Buy

Before reaching for a framework:

1. Do you need it? Simple loops solve many problems
2. Complexity cost: Frameworks add abstraction overhead
3. Debugging difficulty: More layers = harder debugging
4. Lock-in risk: Framework APIs change frequently

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Reading Order

If you’re new to orchestration:

1. Start with The Loop Pattern
2. Learn Verification Strategies
3. Understand Circuit Breakers
4. Then explore advanced patterns as needed

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Full Conceptual Documentation

Detailed pseudo-code and explanations live in the 8me repository:

src/tier3.5-orchestration-concepts/

• 01-fundamentals.md - Core patterns with pseudo-code
• 02-patterns.md - Advanced patterns (self-play, gating, drift)
• 03-providers.md - Framework comparison
• 04-spine-integration.md - SPINE concepts
• 05-minna-memory.md - Memory showcase

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Table of contents

• The Loop Pattern
• Verification Strategies
• Circuit Breakers
• State Management
• Self-Play & Oscillation
• Gating Mechanisms
• Drift Prevention
• Multi-Agent Coordination
• Provider Overview
• SPINE Integration
• Minna Memory