What Happens When Agents Hand Off Work? A2A Delegation, Approval Flows, and Accountability

In most companies, AI agents work in isolation. One agent takes a task, completes it alone, and reports the result. This model is sufficient for single-agent tasks. But when scenarios emerge that require multiple agents to coordinate, this isolated approach falls short.

This is where Agent-to-Agent (A2A) delegation comes in. One agent passes part of its work to another. It sounds simple, but this handoff brings a series of operational challenges: responsibility, approval, and verification.

An A2A Scenario: Writer Agent and Research Agent

Imagine a writer agent at work. It is drafting a blog post for a client. The third section requires industry data. The writer agent cannot go deep enough into this topic or its source validation capacity is limited.

The writer agent makes a decision: delegate this section to the research agent. The delegation message might look like: “Pull the 2025 data from these five sources below, summarize the industry growth rates, and return them as a source list. No predictions or commentary.”

The research agent accepts the task, scans the five sources, creates a summary, and sends it back. The writer agent checks the summary, adds it to its draft, and completes the post.

The critical question in this scenario: if the research agent used a wrong source, who is accountable?

The Responsibility Vacuum and Three Safety Layers

The most dangerous aspect of A2A delegation is the ambiguity of responsibility. When three or two agents work in a chain, each appears to be doing their own job; yet the source of an error can be hidden at any point in the chain.

A three-layer safety model can reduce this risk:

Layer one: The delegator’s accountability. When the writer agent delegates to the research agent, it accepts responsibility for the quality of the delegated result. If the research agent makes a mistake, it is the writer agent that must catch and fix it. This creates an evaluation process that works without an approval mechanism.

Layer two: Veto points. Some delegations carry risk. For example, allowing the research agent to access customer data or letting it make automatic requests to an external API. Such risky delegations create veto points that require human approval. A project manager or data owner approves or rejects the delegation at the veto point.

Layer three: Result verification. When the research agent finishes, the writer agent verifies the result before accepting it. This verification can be automated or manual. High-stakes information always requires human verification.

Approval Hierarchy: Whose Authority When?

When agents delegate to each other in an organization, approval requirements vary by risk level. A three-level hierarchy:

Level one: Low-risk inter-agent handoff. For example, a research agent sending a summary to a writer agent. Such delegations are part of the same workflow and are auto-approved.

Level two: Limited autonomy. A finance agent creating invoices below 10,000 TL. It acts autonomously below this limit; above it, a finance manager must approve.

Level three: Full human approval. Any external data sharing, legally or financially risky delegations. The agent cannot begin until a human approves the delegation message.

This hierarchy clarifies when agents can work freely and when human intervention is needed.

Result Verification: Automated, Manual, or Risk-Based?

The writer agent can verify the summary returned by the research agent in three ways:

Automated verification: URLs are opened, texts are compared against sources, date and data consistency are checked. Suitable for low-risk, structural checks.

Manual verification: A human compares the summary with original sources. Required for high-risk information.

Risk-based verification: Verification depth is determined by the nature of the information. Money, law, health, or customer data always requires manual verification.

If verification fails, the result is rejected and sent back to the agent. Repeated errors lead to restrictions in the agent’s policy.

An Operational Example: Writer, Research, and Finance Agents

Imagine an organization with three agents:

• Writer Agent: Prepares blog posts, publishes after approval.
• Research Agent: Scans sources, summarizes, validates.
• Finance Agent: Creates invoices, tracks payments.

The daily workflow:

1. A client sends a blog post request.
2. The writer agent prepares a draft.
3. It delegates the third section to the research agent.
4. The research agent returns a summary.
5. The writer agent verifies the summary, completes the post.
6. After client approval, the post is published.
7. The finance agent creates an invoice per the signed agreement.

In this flow, each agent’s responsibility is clear. Error sources are traceable. Approval mechanisms operate by risk level.

Tracking Accountability: Git and policy.md Version Control

For accountability to be traceable in A2A delegation, every delegation record must be kept. policy.md files define which agents can delegate what work, approval rules, and veto points.

When these files are versioned in Git:

• It is visible who granted authority to which agent and when.
• Changes are reviewed via PRs.
• In error cases, past records are used to identify the responsibility chain.

Otherwise, what agents did, what they delegated, and who approved it is lost.

Questions: Does Your Organization Use A2A Delegation?

Ask yourself: “Do these agents hand off work to each other? If so, what is the delegation protocol? What is the approval mechanism, and who verifies the result?”

If your answers are unclear, do not allow your agents to delegate to each other. This permission creates danger without defined responsibility and approval mechanisms.

Enterprise A2A delegation is safe only under these conditions:

• Every agent’s policy.md is explicitly defined.
• The responsibility chain is unambiguous.
• Approval veto points are defined and enforced.
• A result verification mechanism is active.
• All records are version-controlled.

How many of these criteria your organization meets is how safe your A2A delegation is.