These dimensions control how agents interact with each other. They determine who can talk to whom, how information flows, and whether agents can collaborate on decisions.
This dimension controls how agents are connected and which coordination patterns are possible. The topology shapes what information can flow between agents and how quickly coordination happens.
Graph-based frameworks let you define explicit topologies as directed graphs at design time. You can create hierarchical, peer-to-peer, or cyclic structures, but the topology stays fixed during execution.
Role-based frameworks create topology implicitly through task decomposition and role assignments. This typically results in sequential pipelines or manager-worker hierarchies with limited lateral interaction.
GABM frameworks centralize interaction through an environment controller (Game Master), enforcing a star topology where agents only interact with the environment, not directly with each other.
Graph-based: Supervisor
Hierarchical tree structure
Graph-based: Network
Fully connected graph
Role-based: Task hierarchy
Orchestrator → Agents → Tasks
GABM: Star topology
All agents connect only to Game Master (GM)
| Framework | Topology |
|---|---|
| Graph-based | Flexible; fixed once defined |
| Role-based | Task hierarchy or sequence |
| GABM | Fixed star; GM at center |
This dimension controls how information moves between agents. Communication can happen through state propagation, message passing, or environment observation.
Graph-based frameworks realize communication through deterministic state propagation along predefined edges in the execution graph, rather than explicit message passing between agents.
Role-based frameworks route communication primarily through task assignment, intermediate result passing, and reporting mechanisms embedded in hierarchical or sequential coordination structures.
GABM frameworks eliminate direct inter-agent messaging. All interaction is mediated through a shared environment that aggregates agent actions and produces new observations for subsequent reasoning.
| Framework | Communication |
|---|---|
| Graph-based | Shared state along edges |
| Role-based | Task-mediated; limited peer querying |
| GABM | Only via GM; no peer-to-peer |
This dimension captures whether frameworks provide explicit mechanisms for agents to jointly coordinate decisions beyond procedural execution.
Graph-based frameworks do not support first-class collaboration. They rely entirely on procedural coordination enforced by predefined workflows.
Role-based frameworks enable limited forms of collaboration through delegation, task handoff, and manager-worker coordination among role-specialized agents. However, they generally lack support for multi-turn negotiation or collective decision-making protocols.
GABM frameworks expose no explicit collaboration mechanisms. Collective behavior emerges indirectly from shared environment dynamics rather than from intentional or negotiated coordination among agents.
| Framework | Collaboration |
|---|---|
| Graph-based | None; procedural only |
| Role-based | Partial; delegation-based |
| GABM | None; emergent only |