I’ve been investigating multi-agent systems and their applications in development workflows. After reading Anthropic’s recent guide to agent coordination patterns, I wanted to experiment beyond established patterns like Evaluator-optimizer and Orchestrator-worker workflows.

For this exploration, I’ve chosen automated code review as a sufficiently complex problem domain. I’m building a multi-agent system structured according to the Viable System Model (VSM) – a cybernetics framework that provides an elegant organizational structure for complex systems. This post explores how VSM can serve as a foundation for implementing a multi-agent code review system that’s both effective and adaptive.

The Viable System Model

Developed by Stafford Beer in the 1970s, VSM is a model from organizational cybernetics that describes the necessary structure for a system to maintain viability in changing environments.

The model consists of five interconnected systems:

  1. System 1: Operations - Primary activities that interact with the environment
  2. System 2: Coordination - Prevents oscillations and conflicts between operational units
  3. System 3: Control & Optimization - Maintains internal stability and optimizes resource allocation
  4. System 4: Intelligence - Gathers environmental information and handles future planning
  5. System 5: Policy - Establishes ultimate authority, identity, and purpose

VSM’s inherent focus on autonomy and recursion makes it particularly valuable for multi-agent systems. Each operational unit can itself be a viable system with its own five subsystems, creating a fractal-like structure that balances local autonomy with global coherence.

VSM and Code Review

The challenges in code review map remarkably well to the VSM structure:

  • Multiple specialized reviewers examining different aspects of code (System 1)
  • Prevention of contradictory or redundant feedback (System 2)
  • Prioritization of feedback based on importance and impact (System 3)
  • Identification of patterns across multiple PRs to suggest deeper improvements (System 4)
  • Alignment of all feedback with project standards and priorities (System 5)

This hierarchical decision-making framework is well-suited for a review system that must balance detailed scrutiny with high-level coherence.

System 1: The Operational Agents

My current implementation focus is on System 1 - the operational agents performing direct code analysis. In this VSM-based review system, System 1 consists of specialized agents:

  • Code Architect Agent: Identifies structural, syntactic, and stylistic issues
  • Performance Guardian Agent: Detects potential performance bottlenecks
  • Security Sentinel Agent: Identifies potential vulnerabilities
  • Code Quality Agent: Examines maintainability, complexity, and potential bugs
  • Documentation Agent: Ensures proper code documentation

Each agent operates autonomously within its domain while remaining integrated with the larger system. I’m implementing these agents using LangGraph, with each having focused responsibilities and specialized knowledge.

A significant challenge at this level is providing each agent with sufficient context about the broader codebase without overwhelming it. I’m experimenting with various approaches to summarize relevant codebase sections as context for the agents.

Future Directions

While my current focus is on implementing System 1 operational agents, the complete vision includes:

  • Incrementally building each system layer to develop a comprehensive code review system
  • Expanding language support beyond Python to include Elixir, Go, and Java
  • Enhancing System 4’s learning capabilities to identify patterns across projects
  • Developing customization options for organization-specific coding standards

Conclusion

The Viable System Model provides a robust framework for creating multi-agent systems that balance autonomy with coordination. Applied to code review, VSM enables systems that deliver feedback that is both detailed and contextually appropriate.

I’m impressed by how naturally VSM concepts map to the practical challenges of code review. The recursion and feedback loops inherent in VSM are particularly well-suited to the complex, multi-layered task of evaluating code.

Early-stage work on this project can be found on GitHub.