Feature Request: Fully Automatic Agent-to-Agent Handoff in Chat (Zero-Click Pipeline)

[ShiningCheck]

Feature Request: Fully Automatic Agent-to-Agent Handoff in Chat (Zero-Click Pipeline)**

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Problem Statement

Currently, custom agent handoffs with send: true still require the user to click a handoff button after each agent completes its response. While this is better than manually typing @next-agent, it still breaks automation for multi-stage pipelines that involve 4-8 sequential agents.

Real-world scenario: I have an ASPICE-compliant system requirements generation pipeline with 6 chained agents:
Each agent performs substantial independent work (10-30 min). With send: true handoffs, I still need to click 5 buttons across a 2-hour pipeline run. If I step away, the pipeline stalls at the next handoff button until I return.

Current Behavior

# esdp-prephase.agent.md
handoffs:
  - label: "Enter SYS.1"
    agent: esdp-sys1
    prompt: "Prephase complete. Read _handoff.json and continue."
    send: true   # <-- still requires button click

Flow: Agent completes → handoff button rendered → ⏸️ waits for user click → next agent starts

Desired Behavior

A new property (e.g., auto: true or autoSubmit: true) that eliminates the button click entirely:

handoffs:
  - label: "Enter SYS.1"
    agent: esdp-sys1
    prompt: "Prephase complete. Read _handoff.json and continue."
    send: true
    auto: true   # <-- automatically submits without button click

Flow: Agent completes → handoff auto-fires → next agent starts immediately

Why This Matters

Metric	Current (button click)	Proposed (auto)
User interactions per pipeline	5-7 clicks	0-1 (initial trigger only)
Unattended execution	❌ Stalls	✅ Runs to completion
Error recovery	Manual	Can combine with Stop hooks for conditional routing
Background agent parity	Gap	Matches background agent's autonomous flow

Environment

• VS Code Insiders 1.101+
• Custom agents with handoffs (send: true)
• Agent-scoped hooks enabled (chat.useCustomAgentHooks: true)
• 6-agent pipeline with Stop hooks enforcing deliverable completion

Labels

feature-request, copilot-chat, custom-agents, handoffs

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