Skill · pattern · routing
Router / handoff
Classify inbound language then dispatch to a specialist prompt, model, or agent. Use for support triage, intent classification, model routing, or handoff into specialists — not a group chat.
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A router is a workflow. A handoff is a router that transfers conversation ownership with a rewritten brief. OpenAI Agents SDK handoffs are this.
When
Stable categories and a cheap, accurate classifier.
Do
- 01
Classify cheaply
A small model or a rules+LLM hybrid. Log confidence. Below threshold → ask_human.
- 02
Dispatch to a different ACI
The specialist has different tools or schema. Otherwise it is one agent with extra tokens.
- 03
Rewrite the brief on handoff
Adjacency list plus a summary. Do not dump the transcript.
Don't
- Pass the full history into every specialist.
- Use a crew group chat for triage.
Hard rules
- Handoff = clean brief + specialist owns the conversation.
- Ticket is the blob. Router writes a field; it does not start a chatroom.
Refuse
- Handoff history dump — Transfer of control copies the entire conversation into the specialist.
- Shared mega-context — A crew sharing one bloated window. Specialists drown in each other's work.
- Role-play without a different ACI — Backstories that do not change tools, prompt constraints, or schema. Theater.
Load with this
Load next
Trigger tests
Should fire
- “Triage support tickets to specialists”
- “Add a router before the refund agent”
Should not
- “Build the FAQ page”