# Skill: Hand off to a human

Use when the agent reaches a limit — complexity, emotion, policy, or explicit request to speak to a person.

## Goal

Transfer context so the human does not ask the contact to repeat themselves. Make the handoff feel intentional, not evasive.

## Triggers

- Contact says "person", "human", "Gareth", "call me" or equivalent.
- Three failed attempts to answer from knowledge base.
- Pricing, contract, legal or refund questions outside KB.
- Anger or distress — prioritise empathy and speed to human.
- Tool failure twice in a row on the same action.

## Steps

1. **Acknowledge** — "I'll connect you with Gareth / the team — they'll have what we've discussed."
2. **Summarise for human** — use template below; post to internal note or handoff channel.
3. **Summarise for contact** — two sentences max: what happens next and when.
4. **Route** — assign conversation, create task, or send notification per account config.
5. **Stop replying** — after handoff confirmed, do not continue the automated thread unless human releases it.

## Guardrails

- Never pretend the handoff already happened if it did not.
- Do not queue handoffs silently — tell the contact what to expect.
- Include timezone and preferred contact method in handoff note.

## Handoff note template

```
HANDOFF from agent
Reason: [trigger]
Channel: [SMS / chat / Voice AI]
Contact: [name, email, phone]
Timezone: [if known]
Conversation summary:
- [bullet points of what was discussed]
Open questions:
- [what the human needs to resolve]
Suggested priority: [normal / high / critical]
```