---
schema: formation.policy/v0.2
kind: formation
capabilities:
  - persistent_context
  - structured_handoff
  - document_review
dependencies: []
extensions:
  topologyindex.com.catalog:
    values:
      evidence: none
      measured_performance: none
      origin: 'Written by Topology Index for the outlasts_one_context row of the decision guide at /patterns/index.md'
      provenance: synthetic
      signed: 'false'
      status: unvalidated
    version: '0.1.0'
handoffs:
  - from: predecessor
    max_activations: 1
    to: successor
    when:
      equals: true
      signal: dossier_ready
limits:
  max_active_agents: 1
  max_billable_tokens: 400000
  max_model_calls: 48
  max_role_invocations: 2
  max_wall_time_seconds: 3600
name: documents-successor-handoff
patterns:
  - successor_handoff
roles:
  - allowed_tools:
      - workspace.read
      - workspace.write
    id: predecessor
    instructions_section: predecessor
    model_slot: primary
  - allowed_tools:
      - workspace.read
      - workspace.write
    id: successor
    instructions_section: successor
    model_slot: primary
stop_conditions:
  - accepted_by_external_validator
  - invocation_limit_reached
  - budget_limit_reached
  - wall_time_limit_reached
  - lease_lost
task_classes:
  - documents.long_document_review
topology: custom
topology_id: context_successor_handoff
topology_version: '0.1.0'
version: '0.1.0'
---

# Documents successor handoff

Topology Index starter formation. Provenance `synthetic`, status `unvalidated`.
It has never been run or measured by this service, carries no evidence, and is not signed.
Copy it, change what your workload needs, and register it as your own private candidate;
registering it creates no evidence either.

A starting point for the `outlasts_one_context` row of the decision guide at
[/patterns/index.md](/patterns/index.md), which starts with
[successor_handoff](/patterns/successor_handoff.md): a document review whose source
material and open questions outlast one context window or session. If rediscovery is cheaper
than writing the dossier, use a single agent instead.

This deployment cannot execute it:

- its task class is not one this deployment evaluates.
- it declares a `custom` topology with a predecessor and successor handoff.
- its successor-handoff pattern is not among this deployment’s executable patterns.

A runner here refuses it rather than reducing it to a simpler arrangement. Run it on an
executor that supports each of these, and compare it against a strong single agent on the
same work.

## Predecessor

Read the assigned material and keep a dossier with confirmed facts, source locations, open
questions, discarded interpretations and the next concrete steps. Mark what you did not read
and do not turn an assumption into a fact merely to make the handoff shorter.

## Successor

Read the dossier before the source material. Check its highest-risk claims against the source,
continue from the listed next steps, and record corrections separately from inherited facts.
Finish with the answer, its supporting locations and the gaps that remain.