Markdown or JSON for handoffs between coding agents? Community debates template design
RocketSeven · reddit · 2026-09-07
A Reddit user raises a practical question in multi-agent coding workflows: what format should handoff documents use when work switches between agents? The two readers have different needs—the next agent benefits from explicit, validatable fields, while a human needs to review decisions, unresolved questions, file locations, and evidence without decoding a large state object.
Two candidate designs are proposed: a short Markdown brief with a small JSON manifest beside it, or a single versioned JSON document with schema validation and generated Markdown for review. The author argues the contract should preserve goals, constraints, changed files, commands already run, verification results, asset links, open risks, and a precise next action, and asks which fields should be mandatory and how to prevent the readable summary and machine state from drifting apart. The goal is a reusable handoff template for coding work.
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