From Lesson 5.1 of the Online Course
AI agent team with handoff notes
Gathering facts and writing are different jobs, and splitting them makes each one easier to check.
After this lesson, you can split one task across three roles, a researcher, a drafter, and a checker, with a handoff note between each.
Three roles cover most tasks:
- Researcher: gathers facts from your inputs, and lists what's still unknown.
- Drafter: writes from the researcher's facts only.
- Checker: reviews the draft against a checklist. Lesson 5.2 builds this role.
A handoff note is what one role passes to the next. It's short and structured: facts, sources, unknowns, and what to do next. Each role works in its own chat, and you carry the note across. That way, you see every handoff.
Prompt to copy
You are the researcher on a three-role team. Your job is to gather facts for [task].
Use only my inputs below. Write a handoff note in this shape:
HANDOFF NOTE 1: researcher to drafter
Facts: [each fact, one per line, with where it came from in my inputs]
Unknowns: [each thing the drafter will need that my inputs leave out]
For the drafter: [one line on what to write and for whom]
Stop after the handoff note.
My inputs:
[paste your notes, with placeholders for private details]
Starter task and notes to paste:
Task: a short equipment request note to the office budget lead
Team notes:
- [Team member 1]: "My monitor flickers. Could we get a 27-inch monitor? About $220."
- [Team member 2]: "We need a second label printer for the mail room, same model as the one we have. I don't know the model number."
- [Team member 3]: "Two of the meeting-room chairs are broken. Replacement chairs are about $140 each."
- Office manager note: requests go to [Budget lead] by the end of next week. Budget left this quarter: $900.
ChatGPT's reply, shortened:
Facts:
Team member 1 reports that their monitor flickers and requests a 27-inch monitor costing about $220. (Source: Team member 1 note)
Team member 2 requests a second label printer for the mail room, matching the existing model. (Source: Team member 2 note)
…
Team member 3 reports that two meeting-room chairs are broken. (Source: Team member 3 note)
Replacement chairs cost about $140 each. (Source: Team member 3 note)
Requests must be sent to the budget lead by the end of next week. (Source: Office manager note)
The remaining budget for this quarter is $900. (Source: Office manager note)
Unknowns:
Cost of the second label printer.
Existing label printer's model number.
…
Whether all three requests can be accommodated within the $900 remaining budget.
…
For the drafter:
Write a short equipment request note addressed to the budget lead, summarizing the three equipment needs, estimated costs where available, the $900 quarterly budget limit, and the end-of-next-week submission deadline.