CrewAI Manager

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What it does

Hierarchical CrewAI manager node. Fans out to all connected CrewAI Subagent nodes, assembles a Process.hierarchical Crew, and synthesizes their outputs into a final answer. Can also be invoked as a tool by other agents via <nodeId>.run_agent for cross-framework nesting.

Lanes: questions → answers

Connections

Channel	Required	Description
llm	yes	LLM for the manager agent (and planning, when enabled)
tool	no	Cross-cutting tools available to the manager itself, e.g. a dedup/lookup check it should run before finalizing a delegated result
crewai	yes (min 1)	Connected CrewAI Subagent nodes (min 1)

The crewai channel accepts only CrewAI Subagent nodes. CrewAI Agent nodes cannot be used as sub-agents, their classType does not include crewai. The Manager itself also cannot be nested under another Manager (it lacks classType: "crewai"); cross-Manager composition is supported via tool.run_agent instead.

Configuration

By default only Instructions is shown. Toggle Advanced Mode to expose the manager agent's CrewAI fields.

Always visible:

Field	Description
Instructions	Delegation guidance appended to the manager's backstory

Advanced Mode:

Field	Default	Maps to
Manager Goal	built-in	Agent(goal=...)
Manager Backstory	built-in	Agent(backstory=...)

How it works

1. Fans out describe to each connected CrewAI Subagent node individually
2. Each CrewAI Subagent responds with its role, goal, backstory, task description, expected output, and tools
3. The manager builds an Agent + Task per sub-agent, routing LLM and tool calls back through that sub-agent's own pipeline channels. Each delegate task then carries the manager's own tool channel in place of the tools it inherited — one assignment that keeps a sub-agent's tools off the manager and makes the manager's cross-cutting tools available on every task it executes. Delegation is unaffected: CrewAI merges the delegation tools on top. The manager agent itself holds no tools, because CrewAI rejects a hierarchical manager that carries any tools
4. Kicks off a hierarchical Crew, running CrewAI's planner with the manager's LLM only when Crew Planning is enabled (off by default)

The node raises an error at runtime if no sub-agents are connected or none respond to describe.