Agent Orchestration Is a Graph Problem, Not a Prompt Problem

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Most multi-step agents I see in the wild have the same shape: a straight line. Step one, then step two, then step three, each one waiting for the previous one to finish before it starts.

Here is the question almost nobody asks about that line: how many of those steps actually needed to wait?

In my experience, usually less than half. The rest just queue, one job at a time, while the context window fills up with intermediate output and the agent slowly forgets what it was doing. When people tell me their agent is slow or unreliable, the model is rarely the problem. The problem is that they drew a line where the work was a graph.

Your Agent Loop Doesn't Know When to Stop

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0530

How does an AI model know when its work is done?

Before you answer, try the human version: how do you know when yours is? A programmer stops when the tests go green or a reviewer approves. A designer steps away, comes back, and decides the remaining imperfections no longer matter. A writer ships because the deadline arrived or the editor accepted it, not because the prose reached some objectively final state.

Agent Orchestration on Vikas Mishra

Agent Orchestration Is a Graph Problem, Not a Prompt Problem

Your Agent Loop Doesn't Know When to Stop