protologue

Handoff

Also called agent handoff, agent transfer, delegation.

A handoff is the transfer of an ongoing task or conversation from one agent to another that specializes in it, typically implemented as a tool the first agent can call to delegate control.

Description

Handoffs let a triage agent route users to, for example, a billing or technical support agent, each with its own instructions and tools. Unlike orchestrator-workers, where control returns to the orchestrator, a handoff passes control along. What context is passed with it decides whether the receiving agent can continue without asking again.

Sources

  1. OpenAI (2025). Handoffs.

Cite this entry

Protologue. (2026). Handoff. In Protologue: A Taxonomy of Prompting and LLM Techniques (v1.4.0, PTL-0142). https://protologue.com/t/handoff/

BibTeX
@misc{protologue_handoff,
  title = {Handoff},
  author = {{Protologue}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Protologue: A Taxonomy of Prompting and LLM Techniques, v1.4.0},
  note = {Entry PTL-0142},
  url = {https://protologue.com/t/handoff/}
}

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