CrewAI: How to Use and Available Options

CrewAI enables you to build powerful, coordinated teams of AI agents who can tackle a single goal together—assigning roles, splitting tasks, and blending strengths inside easy-to-design flows.

Quick Start: Creating a CrewAI Workflow

Go to your workspace and select "CrewAI" or add a Crew node in your flow editor.
Click Add agent to bring in supervisors, workers, or custom roles.
Enter instructions and settings for each agent (e.g. assign Research, Write, Critique).
Link agents together to define “who delegates what” and completion order (sequential, parallel, or custom).
Assign tools or shared resources by clicking the options menu next to each agent.
Save and run your workflow. Monitor in real-time as agents communicate, solve, and hand off tasks.

Available Options for Users

Add as many agents/roles as you need (supervisor, worker, analyst, etc.)
Choose connection type: Sequential (A→B→C), Parallel (all at once), or Hybrid
Assign shared tools to all/any agents (search, API access, file readers, etc.)
Set completion triggers/criteria (when is a task finished? who collects results?)
Easily adjust agent instructions, triggers, and workflow direction anytime

What is CrewAI?

CrewAI is:

A system for defining "crews" (groups) of specialized agents that interact over defined channels/protocols.
Supports agent role assignment: supervisor, worker, planner, analyst, critic, etc.
Enables workflow decomposition—breaking big goals into agent-assigned subproblems, and reassembling final solutions.
Uses communication protocols (messages, signals, status updates) to enable dynamic chaining, error recovery, and task escalation.

CrewAI Configuration in Forjinn

Crew Definition: Build a Crew node (or use CrewAI config in agentflow) specifying which agents/roles are part of the crew and their responsibilities.
Inter-agent Communication: Built in with platform message bus—agents send/receive tasks, results, and signals.
Supervisor/Worker: Use dedicated SupervisorAgent and WorkerAgent nodes for traditional top-down task delegation.
Parallel/Sequential Flows: Connect multiple worker agents for batch processing or chain them for stepwise goal solving.
Shared Tools/Resources: Assign certain tools to all/any agents (shared search, DB access, etc).

Example: Content Generation Crew

SupervisorAgent: Receives the main task, breaks it into research, writing, and review sub-tasks.
WorkerAgent 1 (Researcher): Uses tools for data gathering.
WorkerAgent 2 (Writer): Turns research into drafts.
WorkerAgent 3 (Editor): Reviews output, flags errors, requests rewrites.
Result: Outsized problem solving with human-like coordination, fully testable and traceable via the platform UI.

Using CrewAI Patterns

Set up roles with clear instructions using agent settings.
Connect agents to communication bus: Default out-of-the-box, or explicit message nodes for custom routing.
Configure completion triggers: When all workers finish, supervisor can assemble results and pass to LLM or output.
Monitor Execution: Use agent Executions/Trace—each sub-agent's activity is captured with parent/child IDs, timing, and step logs.

Troubleshooting & Optimization

Deadlocks (agents waiting indefinitely): Ensure triggers/timeouts are set on feedback loops.
Worker failure/retry: Use condition nodes or error-handling agents for healing.
Scaling: ParallelWorker patterns allow for many concurrent tasks, with load balancing and auto-scale supports.

Best Practices & Advanced

Keep roles clear: Overlapping authorities dilute problem-solving.
Recover from errors: Supervisors can reassign or retry sub-tasks.
Limit depth/chains: Excessively deep agent chains can be hard to debug—use logs, sticky notes, and Trace nodes liberally.
Integrate with Analytics: CrewAI runs can be pushed to LangFuse, Arize etc. for cross-session analysis.

Related Patterns

Sequential Agents (pipeline of roles)
Recursive Planners (agents hand off goals to other agents, including self)
Voting System (multiple agents generate, best result chosen by consensus agent)

CrewAI unlocks complex automation, research, autonomous ops, and enterprise-level workflows—precisely coordinated, explainable, and scalable inside Forjinn.

Forjinn Docs

Crew Ai