# ADR-001: Multi-Agent Architecture

**Date**: January 2026
**Status**: Accepted
**Deciders**: Architecture Team

## Context

Socrates AI needed an architecture that could:
1. Handle multiple specialized tasks (dialogue, code generation, conflict detection, etc.)
2. Scale independently (add new capabilities without affecting others)
3. Maintain clean separation of concerns
4. Enable concurrent operations

Traditional monolithic architectures would struggle with this complexity.

## Decision

We decided to implement a **Multi-Agent Architecture** with:
- 10 specialized agents, each handling specific domain responsibilities
- Central AgentOrchestrator routing requests and managing communication
- Event-driven pub/sub system for agent coordination
- Each agent operates independently but coordinates through the orchestrator

## Agents

1. **ProjectManager** - Project lifecycle and metadata
2. **SocraticCounselor** - Dialogue and question generation
3. **CodeGenerator** - Code creation from specifications
4. **ContextAnalyzer** - Project context understanding
5. **ConflictDetector** - Requirement/goal/constraint validation
6. **KnowledgeManager** - Knowledge base operations
7. **DocumentAgent** - PDF/document processing
8. **NoteManager** - Project note management
9. **SystemMonitor** - System health and metrics
10. **QualityController** - Maturity scoring and validation

## Advantages

✓ **Scalability**: Add new agents without modifying existing ones
✓ **Maintainability**: Each agent has single responsibility
✓ **Testability**: Agents can be tested independently
✓ **Reusability**: Agents can be composed in different ways
✓ **Concurrency**: Multiple agents process requests in parallel
✓ **Extensibility**: New agents easily integrate via orchestrator

## Disadvantages

✗ **Complexity**: More moving parts to understand and debug
✗ **Latency**: Communication overhead between agents
✗ **State Management**: Coordinating state across agents
✗ **Error Handling**: Failures in one agent can cascade

## Alternatives Considered

### 1. Monolithic Architecture
- Single large module handling all tasks
- **Rejected**: Hard to maintain, scales poorly, difficult to extend

### 2. Microservices Architecture
- Separate services deployed independently
- **Rejected**: Too heavy for a single-machine application, operational overhead

### 3. Plugin Architecture
- Load-time plugin system
- **Rejected**: Less flexible, harder to coordinate

## Consequences

- System is maintainable and extensible
- Adding features involves creating new agents
- Performance depends on orchestrator efficiency
- Debugging requires understanding agent communication patterns
- Testing requires mocking orchestrator interactions

## Implementation Details

**Agent Registration**:
```python
orchestrator.register_agent('project_manager', ProjectManagerAgent())
```

**Request Processing**:
```python
result = orchestrator.process_request('project_manager', {
    'action': 'create_project',
    'data': {...}
})
```

**Event Emission**:
```python
orchestrator.emit_event('project_created', {'project_id': 'proj_123'})
```

## Related ADRs
- ADR-003: Event-Driven Communication

---

**Decision**: ACCEPTED
**Implementation**: ✓ Complete
**Review Date**: Q2 2026
