Collaboration
How to enable agents to work together, delegate tasks, and communicate effectively within CrewAI teams.
Overview
Collaboration in CrewAI enables agents to work together as a team by delegating tasks and asking questions to leverage each other’s expertise. When allow_delegation=True
, agents automatically gain access to powerful collaboration tools.
Quick Start: Enable Collaboration
How Agent Collaboration Works
When allow_delegation=True
, CrewAI automatically provides agents with two powerful tools:
1. Delegate Work Tool
Allows agents to assign tasks to teammates with specific expertise.
2. Ask Question Tool
Enables agents to ask specific questions to gather information from colleagues.
Collaboration in Action
Here’s a complete example showing agents collaborating on a content creation task:
Collaboration Patterns
Pattern 1: Research → Write → Edit
Pattern 2: Collaborative Single Task
Hierarchical Collaboration
For complex projects, use a hierarchical process with a manager agent:
Best Practices for Collaboration
1. Clear Role Definition
2. Strategic Delegation Enabling
3. Context Sharing
4. Clear Task Descriptions
Troubleshooting Collaboration
Issue: Agents Not Collaborating
Symptoms: Agents work in isolation, no delegation occurs
Issue: Too Much Back-and-Forth
Symptoms: Agents ask excessive questions, slow progress
Issue: Delegation Loops
Symptoms: Agents delegate back and forth indefinitely
Advanced Collaboration Features
Custom Collaboration Rules
Monitoring Collaboration
Memory and Learning
Enable agents to remember past collaborations:
With memory enabled, agents learn from previous collaborations and improve their delegation decisions over time.
Next Steps
- Try the examples: Start with the basic collaboration example
- Experiment with roles: Test different agent role combinations
- Monitor interactions: Use
verbose=True
to see collaboration in action - Optimize task descriptions: Clear tasks lead to better collaboration
- Scale up: Try hierarchical processes for complex projects
Collaboration transforms individual AI agents into powerful teams that can tackle complex, multi-faceted challenges together.