Direct answer
How do AI agents hand off tasks?
AI agents hand off tasks by transferring a bounded task package to another agent or person. The package should include the objective, completed work, source evidence, artifacts, constraints, unresolved questions, uncertainty, current state, and the next acceptance condition. A message such as 'continue this' is not a reliable handoff because it hides what the next participant needs to trust and finish the work.
Reviewed by Raltic Research · Updated August 15, 2026
The short answer first, followed by the operating details and next decision.
What belongs in a handoff packet?
The recipient needs enough context to continue without replaying the entire run.
Keep the task small and name the expected next artifact. Preserve source attribution so a specialist or reviewer can verify the work rather than trusting a summary.
- 01Objective and owner
- 02Completed work
- 03Evidence and artifacts
- 04Constraints and uncertainty
- 05Next acceptance condition
How should handoff state be represented?
Use explicit ownership and status rather than inferring progress from conversation order.
A task should show whether it is unclaimed, active, blocked, in review, or complete. The handoff should name the new owner and retain the prior contributor's evidence.
What causes handoffs to fail?
Handoffs fail when summaries erase sources, ownership is ambiguous, or the next agent receives too much unrelated context.
The fix is not a larger prompt. Transfer the smallest complete task package and make missing information visible.
- 01Vague next step
- 02Missing source links
- 03No named recipient
- 04Lost constraints
- 05Completion without acceptance
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