# PANDA: A Decentralized Architecture with Flexible Orchestration for Scalable, Fault-Tolerant Multi-Agent Systems

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.38482 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.38482/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Agentic AI for wireless networks, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 29 of its 39 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 29 Sep 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Agentic AI for wireless networks](https://mlsanity.com/agents/agentic-ai-for-wireless-networks/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 29 of 29)

- [HotpotQA: A Dataset for Diverse, Explainable Multi-hop Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.09600/) (2018)
- [MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00352/) (2023)
- [Improving Factuality and Reasoning in Language Models through Multiagent Debate](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14325/) (2023)
- [Graph of Thoughts: Solving Elaborate Problems with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09687/) (2023)
- [Why Do Multi-Agent LLM Systems Fail?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.13657/) (2025)
- [A Dynamic LLM-Powered Agent Network for Task-Oriented Agent Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.02170/) (2023)
- [Scaling Large Language Model-based Multi-Agent Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07155/) (2024)
- [Magentic-One: A Generalist Multi-Agent System for Solving Complex Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.04468/) (2024)
- [Cut the Crap: An Economical Communication Pipeline for LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02506/) (2024)
- [OWL: Optimized Workforce Learning for General Multi-Agent Assistance in Real-World Task Automation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.23885/) (2025)
- [G-Designer: Architecting Multi-agent Communication Topologies via Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11782/) (2024)
- [On the Resilience of LLM-Based Multi-Agent Collaboration with Faulty Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.00989/) (2024)
- [AgentNet: Decentralized Evolutionary Coordination for LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.00587/) (2025)
- [Internet of Agents: Weaving a Web of Heterogeneous Agents for Collaborative Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.07061/) (2024)
- [Autellix: An Efficient Serving Engine for LLM Agents as General Programs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13965/) (2025)
- [SAGA: A Security Architecture for Governing AI Agentic Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.21034/) (2025)
- [Beyond DNS: Unlocking the Internet of AI Agents via the NANDA Index and Verified AgentFacts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.14263/) (2025)
- [AI Agents with Decentralized Identifiers and Verifiable Credentials](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.02841/) (2025)
- [Rethinking the Reliability of Multi-agent System: A Perspective from Byzantine Fault Tolerance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.10400/) (2025)
- [AdaptOrch: Task-Adaptive Multi-Agent Orchestration in the Era of LLM Performance Convergence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.16873/) (2026)
- [Graph-of-Agents: A Graph-based Framework for Multi-Agent LLM Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.17148/) (2026)
- [Fast Inference for Augmented Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.18248/) (2024)
- [Robust Multi-Agent LLMs under Byzantine Faults](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.09076/) (2026)
- [Symphony: A Decentralized Multi-Agent Framework for Scalable Collective Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.20019/) (2025)
- [GossipSub: Attack-Resilient Message Propagation in the Filecoin and ETH2.0 Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.02754/) (2020)
- [PPAI: Enabling Personalized LLM Agent Interoperability for Collaborative Edge Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.18067/) (2026)
- [Distributed General-Purpose Agent Networks: Architecture, Key Mechanisms, and Prototypes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.17368/) (2026)
- [MAGIQ: A Post-Quantum Multi-Agentic AI Governance System with Provable Security](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.06933/) (2026)
- [Attacks and Mitigations for Distributed Governance of Agentic AI under Byzantine Adversaries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.12364/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Existing architectures for LLM-based multi-agent systems (MAS) cannot reliably and efficiently solve multi-step tasks at scale: they struggle to support large numbers of agents and concurrent tasks, tolerate failures, govern agent interactions, and accommodate the diverse planning and execution patterns different tasks require. We present PANDA, a decentralized architecture that connects a large collective of heterogeneous, independently administered agents, letting them discover each other's capabilities and self-organize into small specialized teams per task. PANDA scales by decoupling collective communication from team communication, allowing agents to participate in multiple teams simultaneously, load-balancing tasks across the collective, and scheduling concurrent work within each agent. PANDA further separates the underlying architecture from the orchestration strategy, supporting three planning and execution patterns (star, chain, and mesh) that can be selected according to the structure and requirements of each task. PANDA detects infrastructure and orchestration failures and recovers affected tasks by dynamically replanning around failed components. Finally, to provide governance without a centralized service that would limit scalability, PANDA uses a web-of-trust model to constrain agent interactions to established trust relationships. We evaluate PANDA on the HotPotQA benchmark, demonstrating that it scales to thousands of agents, assembles teams in milliseconds, matches state-of-the-art accuracy at up to 8x the efficiency, and sustains 100% task completion under faults where existing systems fail.