Definition
Plain language
A structured handoff record where one AI agent writes down what it learned for the next agent to read.
As stated in the literature
A structured artifact passed between agents in long-horizon research workflows, recording investigation state, evidence, artefacts, limitations, and instructions for downstream agents.
Why it matters: It lets long-horizon agent work survive context limits and handoffs without losing the threads of evidence and dead-ends already explored.
For example, when a research agent runs out of context, it writes a Meta-Trace summarizing what it found, what it tried, and what the next agent should do, and a fresh agent picks up from there.
Heard on the show
“The system has a piece called Meta-Trace, and at the boundary between every step, the acting agent doesn't hand off a chat log.”Episode 002 — An AI Ran a Real Optics Lab for 21 Hours and Found a Transformer-Shaped Pattern in Light