---
term: "Agent handoff"
category: "Agents and autonomy"
url: https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/agent-handoff
source: AgenticOpenFinance glossary
---

# Agent handoff

> Passing control of a conversation from one agent to a specialist agent, which then takes over the turn.

An agent handoff passes control from one agent to another. In the OpenAI Agents SDK, a triage agent hands the conversation to a specialist, which becomes the active agent for the rest of the turn; by default the new agent sees the whole previous conversation, and input filters can change what it receives. Handoffs suit workflows where routing is itself part of the job, such as customer service moving between cards, payments and complaints. Permissions should never grow along a chain of handoffs.

Related terms: [Supervisor agent](https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/supervisor-agent.md), [Multi-agent system](https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/multi-agent-system.md), [Agent framework](https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/agent-framework.md), [Principal](https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/principal.md)