Begin with the job
A calculator needs an input and a correct result. It does not need a personal history. A procurement specialist may need to remember supplier performance, priorities and exceptions across many decisions.
The distinction is whether experience in that role changes future work.
Use three tests
Does the role have a coherent goal that can rank its priorities? Do outcomes provide feedback it can learn from? Does that learning remain useful over time?
If all three apply, a separate Mind may earn its complexity. If the task is a simple transformation, keep it as a tool or workflow step.
Separate conflicting responsibilities
Sales may favor a quick close while finance questions the payment terms. Those perspectives can be useful precisely because they differ. A shared company context gives them common records without requiring one undifferentiated opinion.
A coordinating agent should reconcile work and escalate a real trade-off. Calling it a coordinator does not make its judgment automatically superior. Each Mind’s belief about a shared entity, a person, an organization, a project, carries its own confidence and source rather than being copied into one master record. When two Minds disagree about that entity, it surfaces as a conflict to review, not whichever one wrote last.
Count coordination costs
More agents mean more handoffs, model calls and opportunities to misunderstand. Add one when a clear boundary improves the work.
thinqOS supports separate Minds and agent collaboration. A fully self-organizing federation with flawless reconciliation is a design ambition, not a claim this guide makes about the preview.