What is an Agent Handoff?
An agent handoff is the transfer of control, context, and responsibility from one AI agent to another during a workflow — enabling specialized agents to handle different phases of a complex task.
WHY IT MATTERS
Handoffs are a core primitive in multi-agent systems. A customer service agent might hand off to a billing agent when the conversation turns to payments. A research agent hands off to a trading agent when it's time to execute. The OpenAI Agents SDK makes handoffs a first-class concept.
The quality of a handoff depends on context transfer. The receiving agent needs enough context to continue effectively — conversation history, task state, relevant data — without being overwhelmed by irrelevant information. Poor handoffs lead to agents repeating questions or losing important context.
For financial operations, handoffs carry additional complexity. If a research agent identified a trade and hands off to a trading agent, the financial authority and spending limits must transfer correctly. The trading agent should only have the authority needed for this specific operation.
HOW POLICYLAYER USES THIS
PolicyLayer manages financial context during agent handoffs — ensuring spending authority is properly scoped when control transfers between agents. The receiving agent inherits only the financial permissions needed for its specific task.