Benchmarking Task Takeover Across Agent Handoffs

Computer Science > Computation and Language

[Submitted on 27 Oct 2026]

Title:Benchmarking Task Takeover Across Agent Handoffs

View PDF HTML (experimental)Abstract:As agents collaborate on longer tasks, responsibility may pass between models before the work is complete. The receiving model must build on prior decisions, observations, and actions while addressing the remaining requirements. Evaluating this transition requires connecting the information preserved at handoff to how the receiver continues the work, a relationship that task-success and memory-retention scores alone do not capture. We introduce the Handoff State Continuity Benchmark (HSC-Bench), comprising 1,039 tasks that evaluate two complementary aspects of task takeover: recovering relevant repository evidence and continuing from established conversational, tool, and file-work state. Comparisons across six receiving models show that structured handoff state improves repository evidence recovery for every model and continuation performance for most models. The strongest receivers differ between the two tracks, showing that evidence-recovery rankings alone do not characterize performance when continuing from inherited state. By combining these comparisons with checks of subsequent responses and actions, HSC-Bench evaluates both access to prior evidence and adherence to established commitments and completed work. This provides a basis for selecting receiving models and assessing handoff representations according to the work that must be carried forward.

Additional Features

References & Citations

Loading...

Bibliographic and Citation Tools

Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)

Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)

Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)

scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)

Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article

alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)

CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)

DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)

Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)

Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)

ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)

Demos

Recommenders and Search Tools

Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)

CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)

arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.