gabrielmoreira Handoff Protocols
A handoff is the moment one agent passes work to another — or to a human. It's where multi-agent systems most commonly fail. A dropped handoff means lost context, repeated work, or abandoned tasks.
Anatomy of a Handoff
Every handoff has:
- Trigger: What causes the handoff? (task completion, scope boundary, failure, user request)
- Source: Who is handing off?
- Destination: Who is receiving?
- Payload: What information transfers? (context, partial results, user state, instructions)
- Acknowledgment: How does the source know the destination received the handoff?
- User experience: What does the user see during the handoff?
Handoff Types
- Sequential: Agent A finishes, passes results to Agent B who continues. Like a relay race.
- Parallel fan-out: One agent distributes subtasks to multiple agents simultaneously.
- Parallel fan-in: Multiple agents' results converge back to one agent for synthesis.
- Escalation: An agent can't handle the task and passes up to a more capable agent or human.
- Fallback: The primary agent fails and a backup takes over.
- Human handoff: AI passes work to a human for review, decision, or completion.
Context Transfer
The most common handoff failure is context loss. Design what transfers:
- Full context: Everything the source agent knew. Safe but potentially overwhelming.
- Summarised context: Key information distilled. Efficient but risks losing important nuance.
- Structured context: Predefined fields that must be populated. Consistent but rigid.
- Incremental context: Only what's new since the last handoff. Efficient for ongoing collaborations.
Designing for the User
The user's experience of handoffs matters:
- Invisible handoff: The user doesn't know agents changed. The experience feels seamless.
- Transparent handoff: The user is told a new agent is taking over and why.
- Participatory handoff: The user confirms the handoff or provides additional context.
- User-initiated handoff: The user explicitly requests a different agent or a human.
Handoff Anti-Patterns
- The black hole: Work is handed off but never picked up
- The echo chamber: Agents hand work back and forth without progress
- The context cliff: Critical information is lost in the handoff
- The jarring transition: The user's experience changes dramatically at the handoff point
- The silent redirect: The user doesn't know they've been handed off and gets confused by changes
Design Artefacts
- Handoff protocol specifications (trigger, source, destination, payload, acknowledgment)
- Context transfer templates
- Handoff sequence diagrams
- User experience specifications for each handoff type
- Handoff failure mode analysis