Queue Handoff

CANONICAL SURFACE NOTE (2026-05-11) — rig queue (daemon-backed SQLite) is the canonical surface for all substantive work routing. rigx queue (filesystem v0 prototype) is recovery-only fallback; qitems written via rigx queue are invisible to daemon-backed reads and break fleet-wide routing discipline.

Durable work handoff via queue items. Lets the system keep moving through compactions, missed messages, and interruptions by passing the ball forward instead of leaving work suspended in chat or in-flight without an owner.

Use this when

• Ending a turn on substantive work. Active work should end by

passing the ball to an owner or to the human — never by going idle with the rig appearing dormant.

• Finishing a slice that has a clear next step. Default-nudge:

receiver gets a wake-ping plus the durable queue item.

• Blocked on another agent's work. Park the qitem with

closure_reason: blocked_on and the blocker qitem id.

• Escalating to the human. Make the escalation a durable attention

item, not just a chat message.

Don't use this when

• The work is genuinely complete and there's no follow-on owner. Use

closure_reason: no-follow-on (terminal completion) or canceled/denied as appropriate.

• The handoff would be too small and turn work into bureaucracy. Bundle

the work into a coherent slice instead of decomposing every step.

• The handoff would be too broad and lose ownership/proof/closure

criteria. Shape the qitem so the receiver knows the expected next action and closure evidence.

The hot-potato terminal-turn-rule

Active work ends by passing the ball to a named next owner or to the human. The qitem state machine enforces this:

pending → in-progress → done requires closure_reason from one of:

• handed_off_to — work continues at a different seat (target = new owner)
• blocked_on — parked pending another qitem (target = blocker qitem id)
• denied — receiver rejected the work
• canceled — sender or receiver withdrew
• no-follow-on — terminal completion, nothing else needed
• escalation — kicked up to a higher tier (target = escalation target)

Three of those (handed_off_to, blocked_on, escalation) additionally require closure_target. The daemon enforces this at the domain layer; every surface (CLI, MCP, future UI) inherits the same guarantee.

Default-nudge semantics (the syntax footgun)

Footgun: handoff-and-complete is cold unless --notify is passed. In a self-driving loop, an agent that closes with handoff-and-complete (no --notify) writes a durable qitem but does NOT wake the next owner — the rig stalls silently while the qitem sits in inbox.

Rule: in a live loop, use handoff-and-complete --notify OR send a separate verified manual nudge. --no-nudge exists but should be used intentionally (e.g., explicit park or human-gate signal), not as an accidental stall.

Failure modes (5; verbatim)

1. Agent ends a turn without a handoff, so the rig appears idle.
2. Agent creates a queue item but suppresses or forgets the nudge when immediate motion was intended. This includes handoff-and-complete without --notify inside a live loop.
3. Queue item is too small and turns work into bureaucracy.
4. Queue item is too broad and loses ownership, proof, or closure criteria.
5. Human escalation happens in chat but not as a durable attention item.

Durable handoff field shape

Every qitem carries:

• handed_off_to — destination session (qualified pod-member@rig form)
• handed_off_from — source session
• state — one of: pending | in-progress | done | blocked | failed | denied | canceled | handed-off
• closure_reason + closure_target — set on terminal closure per hot-potato rule

The same field shape exists in legacy rigx queue artifacts and the daemon-shipped rig queue surface, but new queue reads and writes should use rig queue. Watchdog policies and workflow runtime project new owners off these fields.

Two surfaces (same shape)

Default posture: prefer daemon rig queue for new work. If a daemon-backed coordination command fails, debug the command/runtime/schema edge directly — don't fall back to stale pre-upgrade assumptions.

See also

• rig queue --help — full CLI surface for queue items, handoffs, and closure-reason discipline