Three Agent Runs Passed. One Missing Handoff Broke the Workflow

Description and use

In a multi-agent customer support workflow, a missing order reference field disappeared during handoff, causing a silent failure. Adding explicit session metadata and using agent-inspect enabled detection and correction of the issue.

Problem

A missing field (order reference) disappeared during handoff between agents, causing a failure that was not evident in individual agent runs but manifested in the overall workflow.

Outcome

Adding explicit correlation metadata and inspecting sessions with agent-inspect revealed that the order reference was omitted during handoff construction, allowing the issue to be fixed and preventing silent failures in multi-agent workflows.

Workflow

• Extract refund request and order reference in triage agent
• Pass data to refund specialist via handoff
• Specialist checks for required fields; if missing, triggers escalation
• Escalation agent opens support ticket
• Use agent-inspect to group runs by sessionId and inspect handoffs
• Identify missing orderRef in specialist input
• Correct handoff payload construction
• Re-run workflow to confirm success

Evidence

The bug: orderRef disappears while building the handoff payload.

Source

agent-inspect refuses to manufacture a causal link from timestamps alone.

Source