Phase 1: Topologies & Roles · ~60 minutes · Python (stdlib)

Handoffs and Routines — Stateless Orchestration

OpenAI's Swarm (October 2024) distilled multi-agent orchestration to two primitives: routines (instructions + tools as a system prompt) and handoffs (a tool that returns another Agent).

Hiring signal: Can operate handoffs and routines in production

Introduction

No state machine, no branching DSL — the LLM routes by calling the right handoff tool. The OpenAI Agents SDK (March 2025) is the production successor. Swarm itself remains the cleanest conceptual reference — its entire source fits in a few hundred lines. The pattern is viral because the API surface is roughly "agent = prompt + tools; handoff = function returning agent." Limitation: stateless, so memory is the caller's problem.

Type: Learn + Build Languages: Python (stdlib) Prerequisites: Phase 16 · 04 (Primitive Model) Time: ~60 minutes

Objective

Learning objectives

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