I spent 3 weeks building a complex multi-agent system.

5 specialized agents. Orchestration layer. State management. Message queues.

It was beautiful. Sophisticated. Complex.

And completely unnecessary.

The problem: Answer customer FAQs.

**What I built:**
- Agent 1: Intent classifier
- Agent 2: FAQ retrieval
- Agent 3: Knowledge search
- Agent 4: Response generator
- Agent 5: Quality checker
- Plus orchestration, state management, message queues

**Time invested:** 3 weeks
**Users helped:** Zero
**Real feedback:** None

**Then I built the simple version:**
- 1 agent
- 1 prompt
- Vector search

**Time invested:** 1 afternoon
**Shipped:** Week 1
**Real feedback:** Continuous

**The comparison:**
Complex: 87% accurate, $0.08/query, 2,847 lines, never shipped
Simple: 84% accurate, $0.02/query, 156 lines, live in production

This is my biggest architecture mistake.

And the one decision that changed everything.

#AgentArchitecture #OverEngineering #SimplifyFirst #ProductionReady #EngineeringLessons