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COMPEL Glossary / swarm-topology

Swarm topology

A multi-agent topology in which peer agents coordinate without central authority — via shared state, stigmergy, or direct peer messaging.

What this means in practice

Robust to individual-agent failure but harder to audit; suited to exploration, distributed search, and consensus tasks.

Synonyms

peer-to-peer MAS , swarm intelligence topology

See also

  • Multi-agent orchestration — The architectural coordination of multiple cooperating agents — via hierarchical, market, swarm, or actor topologies — to achieve collective tasks.
  • Actor topology — A multi-agent topology in which agents communicate via message passing — with each agent as an isolated actor owning its own state and mailbox.
  • Multi-agent collusion — Emergent behavior where multiple AI agents coordinate against principal intent — sharing information, price-fixing, bypassing oversight, or colluding on a task the principals did not authorize.