What is pipeline fan-out consensus?

Pipeline fan-out consensus is a concept in personal epistemology: Common patterns like pipeline fan-out and consensus for coordinating multiple agents.

Example: You are writing a research report. One approach: you research, outline, draft, edit, and fact-check — sequentially, alone. Another approach: you research while a colleague outlines based on prior notes, a third person drafts a section in parallel, and all three review each other's output before merging. Same report. The second version uses three distinct collaboration patterns — pipeline (research feeds outline feeds draft), fan-out (parallel drafting of independent sections), and consensus (group review before merge). You use these patterns constantly in team settings. The question is whether you use them deliberately, with names, or accidentally, without the ability to diagnose why coordination breaks down.

This concept is part of Phase 26 (Multi-Agent Coordination) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for multi-agent coordination.