Define Handoff Contracts Between Specialized Agents
Write the exact input/output schemas and handoff rules so agents pass work cleanly without losing context.
Eliminate the most common multi-agent failure — broken handoffs — by making every transfer a typed, validated contract.
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Prompt objective
Eliminate the most common multi-agent failure — broken handoffs — by making every transfer a typed, validated contract.
Real use case
In a sales-ops pipeline, the qualifier agent and the proposal agent keep mis-aligning on what counts as a "qualified" lead, so proposals get generated for bad-fit prospects.
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Prompt
You are designing the handoff contracts between agents in a pipeline so work transfers cleanly. Pipeline stages (in order): [AGENT A → AGENT B → AGENT C] What each agent does: [DESCRIBE EACH] The problem today: [WHERE HANDOFFS BREAK] For every handoff (A→B, B→C, ...), specify: 1. Preconditions that must be true before the upstream agent is allowed to hand off. 2. The exact payload schema (fields, types, required vs optional, example values). 3. Validation the downstream agent runs on receipt, and what it does if validation fails (reject back, request clarification, escalate). 4. The minimal context that travels with the handoff so the downstream agent does not need to re-derive it. 5. An idempotency / dedup rule so a retried handoff is not processed twice. Finish with one end-to-end example payload flowing through the whole pipeline.
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How to use this prompt
- 1Replace the key placeholders first: AGENT A → AGENT B → AGENT C, DESCRIBE EACH, WHERE HANDOFFS BREAK.
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