Definition
A handoff transfers active responsibility, essential context, and next-action authority from one agent or person to another. A complete handoff says what has been done, what remains, which evidence and state matter, what constraints still apply, and who now controls the work.
The transfer needs an acceptance boundary. The receiving actor should know it owns the next decision, and the prior actor should stop or move to a clearly subordinate role. Otherwise both may continue, creating duplicate actions or conflicting writes.
Good handoffs preserve compact, structured state rather than dumping an entire conversation. Include decisions, unresolved risks, artifact locations, permissions, deadlines, and the conditions for returning control.
Distinguish it from nearby terms
A handoff transfers control. Delegation assigns work while the delegator may retain accountability. Calling another agent as a tool returns a result to the caller, which keeps next-action authority.
Check your understanding
An agent tells a human, "I could not finish," but provides no failed step, artifact path, or current state and keeps retrying in the background. That is neither a usable handoff nor a clean transfer of control.