Multi-Agent Orchestration in OpenClaw: Centralize Rules, Spawn Sub-Agents

An OpenClaw user shares their evolution from isolated per-agent workspaces to a centralized orchestration pattern. Initially, they created separate agents—each with its own workspace-*—for use cases like System Administrator, Family Agent, Corporate Assistant, and Sports League Management. When developing a skill (e.g., a team-roster skill for the Sports agent), they would chat directly with that agent.

The pain point: when a cross-cutting rule emerged (e.g., “always persist structured data like points scores or spending ledgers in .JSON files”), they had to manually copy the instruction into every agent’s workspace. The solution was to promote a single “main agent” as the orchestrator. Now, the main agent holds all architectural rules (like the .JSON convention) and spawns sub-agents on demand to build tools. For example, to build a spending tracker for the Corporate agent, the user describes requirements to the main agent, which then ensures the skill built in the sub-agent’s workspace follows the central rules—no more duplication.

The user admits this pattern “now seems obvious” in hindsight, but notes that initially they were unsure whether the recommended “main agent orchestrates sub agents” pattern applied to agent-to-agent building scenarios.