Guide · Agent orchestration
Manager Agent or Handoff: Who Owns the Final Answer?
Choose between a coordinator that combines specialist results and a handoff that lets a specialist take over the conversation.
A specialist can help with a task without becoming the person the user is effectively talking to. Decide who owns the final answer before building the routing. That choice affects the instructions, the context each worker receives, and the way the system handles an incomplete result.
Keep a manager when results need combining
In the OpenAI Agents SDK, the agents-as-tools pattern lets a manager call specialists and retain control of the conversation. A handoff switches the active agent. These are different arrangements, even when both involve several model calls.
Consider a hypothetical proposal assistant. It needs a delivery estimate, a scope review, and a summary of the customer's requirements. A manager can collect those results and return one coherent proposal. The user should not have to reconcile three separate answers or determine which one represents the final recommendation.
Hand off when the conversation changes owner
A support triage agent might identify that the user's issue belongs with an account-access specialist. If the next several questions all concern account recovery, handing over the conversation can make sense. The specialist can ask the follow-up questions and remain responsible for that part of the interaction.
Make the transition understandable. The user should know why the specialist is asking for information and what it can help with. Avoid switching agents repeatedly for small questions that one capable worker could answer with the available tools.
Define a return path for incomplete work
A manager needs to distinguish a completed result from a request for more information. Give specialists a way to return uncertainty, a missing input, or a tool failure. The coordinator can then decide whether to retry, ask the user, or finish the parts that are supported.
A handoff needs its own recovery rule. If the chosen specialist cannot handle the request, decide whether it returns control to triage or asks a clarifying question. Without that rule, the user may get passed between roles that each assume someone else owns the problem.
Keep permissions attached to the role
Conversation ownership does not automatically justify broader access. A specialist responsible for account recovery should receive only the tools needed for that work. The transition should not silently carry unrelated administrative powers into the next step.
Test a request that belongs between two roles. For example, an account-access problem may reveal a billing issue. Watch whether the system maintains the original goal while routing the new information. A correct specialist answer is not enough if the initial problem disappears from the conversation.
Review the experience as one conversation
Read the full exchange after a trial. Check whether the user had to repeat facts, whether responsibility stayed clear, and whether the final answer addressed the original request. Those observations will tell you more about the routing than a diagram with neatly separated boxes.