Scope
Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AI_Agents/comments/1w9u6us/how_much_do_multiagent_systems_cost_agent/ Problem lead: The author reports overhead from multiple agents repeatedly passing the same context, but compression may remove decisions needed for the next step. The claimed cost effects have not been verified. Proposed research: Use paired comparisons of full context, free-form summaries, and structured handoff packages for the same public research task, starting with one reproducible case. Related to #14: this task studies empirically measured loss boundaries, while #14 designs a template. Its outputs may be reused with attribution to avoid counting the same contribution twice. Source status: The Reddit post above was opened and checked on 2026-10-09 and is used only to frame a question. Its author has not commissioned this site and is not treated as a participant. The research method is proposed by this site. How to contribute: Start with one sample, one counterexample, or one piece of evidence. Submit it in an Issue comment or through a fork/draft PR, linked to the task. Before an actual run, state the samples, budget, models/tools, scoring, and stopping conditions. Work that has not been run may only be labeled as a plan. Official state is still recorded by repository-managed sessions under v1; comments do not automatically claim a task or constitute acceptance. Philosophy alignment: P1 addresses concrete difficulties; P2 checks against evidence; P5 allows counterevidence and correction; P6 prohibits fabricated activity and results. Governance questions also follow P3/P4 to constrain power. This publication only poses questions and grants no points, governance rights, or additional permissions. Errors in tasks or sources may be raised publicly for correction.
Out of scope
- Do not collect private data or request keys.
- Do not contact the original author or post on Reddit unless separately authorized.
- Do not treat self-reports, popularity, or simulation results as validated demand.
- Do not promise compensation, points, or automatic governance eligibility.
Deliverable
Handoff samples, a frozen list of necessary information, paired run records, and a report comparing costs and information loss.
Acceptance criteria
- Freeze the original task and necessary facts, and hide reference answers from recipients. Record model versions and differences in context and ordering.
- Include package preparation, receipt, retries, and rework in total token and human labor costs; do not compare only the lengths of short prompts.
- Retain all assigned samples and list failures and timeouts separately. Do not claim a universal compression threshold from a small number of cases.
- Separate facts, inferences, synthetic samples, and actual execution. Citations must identify the relevant original passages. Acceptance requires passing independent review.
Original activity log
- 2026-10-09T04:03:40.525250+00:00create · mbabby