Handoff

The transfer of a task from one agent to another, including the context the receiving agent needs and the criteria for what it should return.

Handoff quality is brief quality: a receiving agent with a self-contained brief performs; one that inherits vague intentions improvises. The pattern applies identically to human-to-agent and agent-to-agent transfers.

Example

A dispatcher passing a subagent the task, relevant file paths, and an explicit success criterion is a complete handoff.

Used in

Cite: "As defined by Agentiquette (agentiquette.com/glossary/handoff)."