Learning by building a multi-agent design lab. Yet, single agent works better A learning project called dsgnrd, built by developer Ben Zercotte on the architecture of the dust-tt/srchd research-collaboration system, found that a single design agent outperformed multi-agent cooperation, according to the project write-up. The tool runs two Claude Haiku agents with one peer reviewer each on a design brief, requires Node.js 24.15+ and npm 12+, and exposes a local dashboard at localhost:1337 that shows publications, reviews, conversations and estimated cost without an API key. The project implements all nine tables of the srchd schema, preserving its table names and relationships for design collaboration, and notes that Mobbin and Firecrawl usage are billed separately and excluded from the --max-cost limit. Sharing news on this project from my substack https://substack.com/@benzercotte/note/c-358201386?r=62mul&utm source=notes-share-action&utm medium=web This is a learning project to explore how agents can cooperate in design collaboration, drawing on the dust-tt/srchd https://github.com/dust-tt/srchd project. Requires Node.js 24.15+ and npm 12+. From the repository root, run npm ci and npm run migrate , then add ANTHROPIC API KEY=your-key and FIRECRAWL API KEY=your-key to .env ignored by Git . Use the included Oldskaters brief https://github.com/BenCoDev/dsgnrd/blob/main/problems/oldskaters/trick-reveal/problem.md : npx tsx src/dsgnrd.ts experiment create oldskaters-reveal \ -p problems/oldskaters/trick-reveal Connect Mobbin once for design references requires a qualifying Mobbin plan : npx tsx src/dsgnrd.ts mobbin login Open the printed URL and authorize your account. Credentials stay in ~/.config/dsgnrd/mobbin ; mobbin disconnect removes them locally. Design agents can search screens, flows and website sections; returned previews and source links are saved in their conversations. Mobbin usage is separate from model costs and is not included in --max-cost . Create two Haiku agents using the design instructions https://github.com/BenCoDev/dsgnrd/blob/main/agents/design/prompt.md , then run them with one peer reviewer each: npx tsx src/dsgnrd.ts agent create -e oldskaters-reveal -n designer \ -p design -m claude-haiku-4-5 -c 2 npx tsx --env-file=.env src/dsgnrd.ts agent run all \ -e oldskaters-reveal --reviewers 1 --tick Repeat only the run command to continue. Remove --tick to run continuously; stop with Ctrl-C. Conversations and results are saved in db.sqlite . Design agents can inspect public websites through Firecrawl: screenshots and page text are saved in their conversations. For open → inspect → click → inspect, run continuously: a browser session is reused between ticks but closes when the command ends, including --tick . Each agent gets at most two five-minute sessions per invocation and ten actions per session. Firecrawl credits are separate from model costs and are not included in --max-cost . Existing agents pick up the tools on restart; use agent instructions