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Workforces Overview

Workforces let you combine multiple agents into a reusable team. Instead of asking one agent to do everything, you define a manager plus specialized workers and let Xagent coordinate handoffs.

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When to use a workforce

Use a workforce when the outcome needs:

• Multiple roles with different instructions
• Delegation between specialists
• Shared context across repeated operations
• A reusable structure for a team workflow

Typical examples:

• A support workforce that routes between triage, documentation, and escalation agents
• A marketing workforce that coordinates research, copywriting, and design tasks
• A security workforce that combines email analysis, policy lookup, and reporting

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Workforce vs agent

An agent is one configured role. A workforce is a system of roles with a manager that delegates to workers.

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Core structure

Every workforce has:

• A manager agent that receives the request and decides what to delegate
• One or more worker agents with assignment-specific instructions
• A canvas layout that represents the team visually
• A run history for repeated execution

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What the manager does

The manager agent is the front door of the workforce. It can:

• Interpret the incoming request
• Decide which worker should handle each part
• Reuse global tools and knowledge when appropriate
• Return a unified result to the user

The manager is still an agent, but it runs with workforce-aware delegation logic.

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What workers do

Workers are normal agents attached to the workforce with extra assignment instructions. Each worker can have:

• Its own role and prompt
• Its own tools, skills, and knowledge bases
• A human-friendly alias inside the workforce
• A position on the workforce canvas

This keeps responsibilities clear without forcing you to build a brittle manual workflow.

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Workforce lifecycle

The common lifecycle looks like this:

1. Create a manager agent
2. Add worker agents
3. Test the workforce structure
4. Publish when ready
5. Start runs with a user message and optional files

You can also bootstrap a workforce from a prompt, then refine it with the builder and canvas.

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Builder and canvas

Xagent includes builder endpoints and a canvas model for workforce iteration. In practice, this means you can:

• Propose structural changes from a prompt
• Apply a generated patch to the workforce
• Inspect the workforce as nodes and edges
• Adjust worker membership and layout over time

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Publishing and running

Workforces move through draft and active states, with archive support when a team structure should no longer be used. Once active, they become stable reusable team structures for repeated work. Each execution creates a workforce run. A run records:

• The user message
• The backing task
• The workforce status
• The latest result and timestamps

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Related features

Workforces fit naturally with:

• Agents for reusable specialists
• Knowledge Base for shared retrieval context
• Files for run inputs and artifacts
• API Reference: Workforces for full endpoint details

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Next steps

• Build a workforce
• Build reusable agents
• Review the API Reference