Pattern Library

The Pattern Library provides ready-to-use orchestration patterns for common multi-agent tasks. Each pattern is battle-tested and can be used directly or customized for your needs.

Pattern Categories

Category	Description	Use Cases
Voting Patterns	Classification and decision-making	Content moderation, sentiment analysis, categorization
Quality Gates	Confidence-based filtering	Ensuring output quality, retry logic
Extraction Patterns	Data extraction and merging	Entity extraction, document analysis
Verification Patterns	Fact-checking and validation	Translation verification, data validation
Advanced Composition	Complex multi-step workflows	Research pipelines, document processing

Quick Start Patterns

Multi-Agent Voting

The simplest pattern - multiple agents vote on a classification:

name: content-classifier
version: 1.0.0

input:
  content: string

agents:
  capabilities: [classification]
  min: 3

execution:
  strategy: parallel
  timeout: 30000

aggregation:
  strategy: voting
  method: majority

output:
  category: $vote.result
  confidence: $vote.confidence

Quality-Gated Analysis

Add confidence thresholds and retry logic:

name: quality-gated-analysis
version: 1.0.0

input:
  document: string

agents:
  capabilities: [analysis]
  min: 3

execution:
  strategy: parallel

aggregation:
  strategy: consensus
  threshold: 0.8

validation:
  minConfidence: 0.7
  onFailure: retry
  maxRetries: 2

output:
  analysis: $consensus.result
  confidence: $consensus.confidence

Data Extraction

Extract and merge data from multiple agents:

name: entity-extraction
version: 1.0.0

input:
  document: string

agents:
  capabilities: [entity-extraction]
  min: 5

execution:
  strategy: parallel

aggregation:
  strategy: merge
  method: union
  deduplication: true

output:
  entities: $merged.entities
  confidence: $merged.confidence

Translation Verification

Verify translations with back-translation:

name: verified-translation
version: 1.0.0

input:
  text: string
  sourceLang: string
  targetLang: string

steps:
  - id: translate
    agents:
      capabilities: [translation]
      min: 3
    aggregation:
      strategy: consensus

  - id: back-translate
    agents:
      capabilities: [translation]
      min: 2
    input:
      text: $translate.result
      sourceLang: $input.targetLang
      targetLang: $input.sourceLang

  - id: verify
    agents:
      capabilities: [text-similarity]
      min: 2
    input:
      original: $input.text
      backtranslated: $back-translate.result

output:
  translation: $translate.result
  verified: $verify.result.similar
  confidence: $verify.result.similarity

Choosing a Pattern

Decision Flow

What do you need?
│
├── Classification/Decision → Voting Patterns
│   ├── Binary decision → voting (majority/unanimous)
│   ├── Multi-class → voting (plurality)
│   └── Weighted decision → voting (weighted)
│
├── Data Extraction → Extraction Patterns
│   ├── Combine unique items → merge (union)
│   ├── Find common items → merge (intersection)
│   └── Structured data → merge (deep)
│
├── Quality Assurance → Quality Gates
│   ├── Minimum confidence → validation (threshold)
│   ├── Retry on failure → validation (retry)
│   └── Fallback on failure → validation (fallback)
│
├── Verification → Verification Patterns
│   ├── Translation → back-translation
│   ├── Fact-checking → multi-source
│   └── Data validation → cross-reference
│
└── Multi-step Processing → Advanced Composition
    ├── Pipeline → sequential
    ├── Parallel subtasks → parallel + merge
    └── Conditional → switch

Pattern Configuration

Common Options

All patterns support these configuration sections:

# Metadata
name: pattern-name
version: 1.0.0
description: What this pattern does

# Input schema
input:
  fieldName: type

# Agent selection
agents:
  capabilities: [cap1, cap2]
  min: 3
  max: 5

# How agents execute
execution:
  strategy: parallel | sequential | race
  timeout: 30000

# How results combine
aggregation:
  strategy: voting | consensus | merge | first

# Quality requirements
validation:
  minConfidence: 0.7
  onFailure: retry | fail | fallback

# Output mapping
output:
  result: $variable

Input Types

input:
  # Simple types
  text: string
  count: number
  enabled: boolean

  # With validation
  email:
    type: string
    format: email
    required: true

  # Optional with default
  language:
    type: string
    default: 'en'

  # Enum
  mode:
    type: string
    enum: [fast, standard, thorough]

  # Array
  items:
    type: array
    items: string

  # Object
  options:
    type: object
    properties:
      verbose: boolean
      maxTokens: number

Output Variables

Variable	Description
`$input`	Original input
`$input.field`	Specific input field
`$results`	All agent results
`$vote.result`	Voting winner
`$vote.confidence`	Voting confidence
`$consensus.result`	Consensus output
`$consensus.confidence`	Consensus confidence
`$merged`	Merged results
`$execution.agentCount`	Number of agents used
`$execution.duration`	Execution time (ms)

Using Patterns

Execute via SDK

import { ParallaxClient } from '@parallax/sdk-typescript';

const client = new ParallaxClient({ url: 'http://localhost:8080' });

const result = await client.executePattern('content-classifier', {
  content: 'Check out this amazing deal!'
});

console.log(result);
// { category: 'promotional', confidence: 0.92 }

Register Custom Patterns

// Register from YAML file
await client.registerPattern(fs.readFileSync('my-pattern.yaml', 'utf-8'));

// Register programmatically
import { PatternBuilder } from '@parallax/pattern-sdk';

const pattern = new PatternBuilder('my-pattern')
  .input({ text: 'string' })
  .agents({ capabilities: ['analysis'], min: 3 })
  .parallel()
  .voting({ method: 'majority' })
  .build();

await client.registerPattern(pattern);

List Available Patterns

const patterns = await client.listPatterns();

for (const p of patterns) {
  console.log(`${p.name}@${p.version}: ${p.description}`);
}

Best Practices

Start Simple - Begin with basic voting/consensus, add complexity as needed
Right-size Agent Count - 3-5 agents for most tasks; more for critical decisions
Set Appropriate Thresholds - Balance reliability vs completion rate
Add Quality Gates - Use validation to catch low-confidence results
Version Your Patterns - Use semantic versioning for production patterns
Test with Edge Cases - Verify patterns handle disagreement gracefully

Next Steps

YAML Syntax - Complete syntax reference
Voting Patterns - Classification patterns
Pattern Builder - Visual pattern editor

Pattern Categories​

Quick Start Patterns​

Multi-Agent Voting​

Quality-Gated Analysis​

Data Extraction​

Translation Verification​

Choosing a Pattern​

Decision Flow​

Pattern Configuration​

Common Options​

Input Types​

Output Variables​

Using Patterns​

Execute via SDK​

Register Custom Patterns​

List Available Patterns​

Best Practices​

Next Steps​