Claude Code + Subagents: Orchestrate an Entire Product Team
Deploy 25+ agents in parallel waves, simulating PM, engineers, QA, and red team—all sharing a single knowledge graph.
The Hero Demo: 68 Minutes, 25 Agents, Real Production Work
On January 21, 2025, we ran a comprehensive demonstration of multi-agent orchestration using maenifold. This wasn't a toy example—it was real production work that discovered and fixed critical bugs.
Demo Stats
Part 1: PM-lite Protocol (Discovery & Testing)
- Wave 1: 3 agents (core functionality)
- Wave 2: 4 agents (integration testing)
- Wave 3: 3 agents (edge cases)
- Wave 4: 2 agents (verification)
Part 2: Agentic-SLC Workflow (Issue Remediation)
- 7 implementation agents across 3 waves
- 6 discovery/validation agents
Prerequisites
- Claude Code installed and configured
- Understanding of multi-agent patterns
- Optional: Read demo artifacts first for context
Setup for Multi-Agent Orchestration
1. Single Claude Code instance as orchestrator
# Set shared knowledge location
export MAENIFOLD_ROOT="~/project-sprint"
# Start Claude Code
claude-code2. Orchestrator creates plan
"Create a sequential thinking session for orchestrating test coverage. Plan agent waves: discovery → implementation → verification → red team."
3. Deploy agent waves (using Claude Code subagents)
"Launch 4 parallel subagents:
- TST-001: Test API endpoints
- TST-002: Test CLI parity
- TST-003: Test error handling
- TST-004: Performance benchmarks
Each agent should write findings to memory with [[test-result]] tags."4. Agents work in parallel, writing to shared graph
- Each agent has own sequential thinking session
- All write to same memory:// location
- Knowledge graph automatically links related concepts
- Orchestrator monitors progress via RecentActivity
5. Orchestrator synthesizes results
"Search memories for [[test-result]] from the last 10 minutes. Build context and create summary report."
Walkthrough: Simplified PM-lite Demo
Let's recreate a scaled-down version of the demo (4 agents instead of 12):
Step 1: Orchestrator Creates Plan
Claude Code Prompt (you, as PM):
"I need to test our search functionality. Create a plan for 4 test agents: Agent A (hybrid search), Agent B (semantic search), Agent C (full-text search), Agent D (edge cases). Create a sequential thinking session to track orchestration."
Step 2: Launch Wave 1 (Parallel Testing)
Claude Code Prompt:
"Launch 4 subagents in parallel. Each should: 1) Run assigned tests, 2) Write results to memory with [[test-result]] tag, 3) Document any bugs with [[bug]] tag. Use agent names: TST-A, TST-B, TST-C, TST-D"
What Happens:
- Claude Code spawns 4 parallel agents (via Task tool)
- Each agent runs independently
- Each writes to memory://testing/ folder
- All agents share the knowledge graph
- You see 4 progress indicators running simultaneously
Step 3: Monitor Progress
Claude Code Prompt:
"Check recent activity. Show me what each agent has completed."
Step 4: Synthesize Results
Claude Code Prompt:
"Search memories for [[test-result]] and [[bug]]. Build context and create summary report."
maenifold Automatically:
- Searches all agent memories
- Finds test results + bug reports
- Builds concept graph showing relationships
- Generates comprehensive report
Report Includes: Test coverage matrix, pass/fail summary, bug details with links to agent reports, recommendations for next steps
Real Demo Artifacts
We've preserved the complete demo artifacts showing every step:
Location: /Users/brett/src/ma-collective/maenifold/assets/demo-artifacts
Part 1: PM-lite Protocol (part1-pm-lite/)
- orchestration-session.md: Real-time orchestration thoughts (session-1758470366887)
- test-matrix-orchestration-plan.md: 50+ test cases, 4-wave architecture
- E2E_TEST_REPORT.md: Final results showing 85% success rate
- demo-final-report.md: Comprehensive report from VRFY-02 agent
Part 2: Agentic-SLC Workflow (part2-agentic-slc/)
- agentic-slc-thinking-session.md: Sprint progress (session-1758474798193)
- agentic-slc-workflow-session.md: Complete 17-step workflow (includes embedded RTM.md content)
- RTM.md: Requirements traceability matrix (27 atomic items) - embedded in workflow session, not standalone
- sprint-specifications.md: Detailed specs with line numbers
- implementation-plan.md: 7 agents, 3 waves, 22 tasks
- code-justification-report.md: Justification for every line of code
- sprint-retrospective.md: Learnings and metrics
Key Patterns from Demo
Pattern 1: Adaptive Wave Deployment
Instead of launching all 12 agents at once, the PM orchestrator:
- Launched Wave 1 (4 agents): Core functionality tests
- Monitored results via RecentActivity
- Discovered critical bug in Wave 1 results
- Adapted Wave 2 plan based on findings
- Launched Wave 2 (3 agents): Bug investigation + regression tests
- Continued adaptive deployment through Waves 3 & 4
Result: More efficient than rigid plan, found critical issues early
Pattern 2: Shared Sequential Thinking
All 12 agents contributed to SAME sequential thinking session:
- PM wrote orchestration thoughts
- Agents wrote progress updates
- Verification agents wrote validation results
- Red team wrote security concerns
Result: Complete audit trail, single source of truth for entire sprint
Pattern 3: Knowledge Graph Synthesis
After all agents completed work:
- 171,506 new concept relations added to graph
- BuildContext on [[test-coverage]] revealed connections across all agent work
- Visualize generated architecture diagrams from agent findings
- SearchMemories instantly retrieved related work across 25 agents
Result: Knowledge persists beyond demo, available for future work
Next Steps
- →
Start with single-agent workflows
Try UC3 first—you don't need multi-agent to benefit
- →Explore Sequential Thinking
Foundation for both single and multi-agent workflows
- →
Browse demo artifacts
See real orchestration patterns and agent coordination strategies