A Two-Dimensional Framework for AI Agent Design Patterns: Cognitive Function and Execution Topology
Existing frameworks for LLM-based agent architectures describe systems from a single perspective: industry guides (Anthropic, Google, LangChain) focus on execution topology -- how data flows -- while cognitive science surveys focus on cognitive function -- what the agent does. Neither axis alone disambiguates architecturally distinct systems: the same Orchestrator-Workers topology can implement Plan-and-Execute, Hierarchical Delegation, or Adversar
By Jia Huang, Joey Tianyi Zhou