Horizontal Architectures

Horizontal Architectures are a type of Multi-Agent Systems pattern where agents work together as peers, rather than taking direction from a lead agent. All agents can see and contribute to a shared discussion of the task.

They're generally used for tasks where collaboration, feedback and group discussion are key to success. The opposite pattern is a vertical architecture, where a lead agent directs the others and there's a clear division of labour.

The categories come from The Landscape of Emerging AI Agent Architectures for Reasoning, Planning, and Tool Calling: A Survey.

See Multi-Agent Systems.