A Handoff Point is the critical boundary in a multi-agent workflow where control and context are passed from one agent to another. It is the mechanism for delegating ownership of a task. Rather than one agent handling an entire process, it performs its specialized function and then “hands off” the task to the next specialist in the sequence or graph.
Effective handoffs are defined by a clear, structured data contract. A loose handoff, where one agent passes a blob of unstructured natural language to the next, is a primary source of errors and context loss. A robust handoff involves a well-defined schema or “handoff envelope” that contains the necessary inputs for the receiving agent, a summary of what has already been done, and a clear statement of the sub-goal to be achieved.
Modern agentic frameworks (like OpenAI’s Agents SDK and LangGraph) treat handoffs as first-class architectural concepts, often implementing them as special tools that an agent can call to transfer control. Designing these points carefully is essential for building reliable multi-agent systems, as failures in handoffs are a more common cause of system failure than failures in individual agent reasoning.