Why AI agent teams break at the handoffs, and how to design them
A common approach assigns AI agents distinct roles such as researcher, developer, reviewer, and coordinator, but the article argues that sustaining this over real work is hard. Most failures occur between agents rather than within them, especially when handoffs pass summaries instead of artefacts or omit context. The author recommends giving each role a single job with a defined, checkable output format. Permissions should be enforced through the tools agents can call, not just through instructions. A coordinator needs limits such as reassignment caps and time budgets, and should report evidence rather than summaries. Teams are advised to start with two roles and one reliable handoff before adding more agents.
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