Hand work off cleanly.
One agent finishes its part. Another picks it up.
That moment is a handoff, and it works best when it is written down.
Leave one note, name one owner, and check that it landed.
This guide shows how to set that up.
1. A handoff is a note, not a hope
Do not count on the next agent to guess what the last one did.
Every handoff is a short note the first agent leaves.
The note is what the next agent reads first.
2. One owner per task, always
Every task has one name that answers for it.
When work moves, the owner moves with it, and you can see the new name.
Two owners means nobody owns it. Pick one.
3. Write the note so the next agent can start cold
The next agent has none of the first agent's memory. The note has to carry it.
Keep it to five lines:
- Goal: what the work is for.
- State: what is finished and what is not.
- Next step: the one thing to do now.
- Files: where the work lives.
- Done looks like: how you will know it is finished.
See the guide on how an agent keeps what it learned.
4. Say what done looks like before the work moves
Write the finish line first. Then hand off.
A clear finish line lets the next agent stop when the job is done, not before and not after.
5. Check it landed
Ask the receiving agent to say the task back in one line.
If the line matches the goal, the handoff worked.
If it does not, fix the note, not the agent.
6. Keep the trail
Link each note to the record, so you can follow a task from its start to its end.
See the guide on the agent activity log.
Where a person has to decide before work moves, see the guide on agent approvals.
A handoff note can look like this:
- Goal: a short summary of this week's posts
- State: drafts done, images not started
- Next step: pick images for the three drafts
- Files: the drafts folder
- Done looks like: three drafts, each with an image
7. Check it
Pick one handoff this week.
Run it through the five lines and the one line read back.
If anything is missing, add it to the note.
One handoff. Five lines.
