A handoff is something you can hold.

An agent can hold a stage when it's handed an artifact and hands one back: something with a name that the next stage can read and anyone can check. A conversation doesn't count.

Not a handoff, and a handoff Two panels. In the first, one person says "it just sort of works, you know?" and the other says "totally!", labeled not a handoff. In the second, one person hands the other a sheet labeled the suite, labeled a handoff. not a handoff a handoff it just sort of works, you know? totally! the suite

Here is what each stage hands to the next.

  1. Define
  2. Requirementsa statement of the job, and its open questions
  3. Architecture and Designthe architecture record, then the steps, program or judgment on each
  4. Impactthe impact report: each dependent, and what the change does to it
  5. Sourcefor each step, an agent or solution that fits, or "build one"
  6. Make
  7. Testthe suite, written from the statement before any program
  8. The hand-offa build folder on a branch, with a "Write the scripts" pull request: the declarations, the suite, the rules in AGENTS.md and a fence in build.lock.json
  9. Codethe programs, passing the suite, and a record of every round, as commits on that branch
  10. Reviewfindings, each naming a place, a claim and a consequence
  11. Security reviewwhat it may reach, what it may spend, and what it must never do
  12. Ship
  13. Package on-rampthe package: declaration, parts, manifest, digest
  14. Release on-rampa signed build record, and the package at an address
  15. Deploy goes livea running agent with its credentials and limits in place, and a signed deployment record
  16. Prove
  17. Conformancea signed verdict against the declaration, and an attestation for this version
  18. Acceptancethe requester's recorded yes, against "done"
  19. Use
  20. Docsthe AgentDoc, every claim traced to its source
  21. Publishan address a person can open, and the digest of what's there
  22. Retracta record of what was taken down, by whom, and when
  23. Run
  24. Monitorwhether each agent is alive, measured by an answer
  25. Evala graded judgment, against a standard set beforehand
  26. Incident responsea timeline of what's known, with each gap marked
  27. Costwhat was spent, by whom, against what was allowed
  28. Change
  29. Updatethe same agent on a new version, proven first
  30. Reconfigurethe same agent and version, new settings, and a signed record
  31. Rollbackthe same agent on the version before, and why
  32. Decommissionnothing running, records kept, address retired

Real work loops back, after a failed test or a finding, but what passes between two stages is the same artifact every time.

The hand-off before Code is what lets the coding agent you already use hold that stage. It is given the folder, not a conversation, and the pull request's checks decide whether its work moves on. Here is the contract to give your own coding agent.