A handoff button is useful only when the application stops its own pending actions and gives the operator enough context to act.
Define the handoff triggers
A user asking for a person, an uncertain business fact and a failed external tool are three different reasons to stop. Give each a visible status and an operator owner.
Do not require the model to guess whether a failed send reached the recipient. Preserve the provider’s status and let recovery follow a defined rule.
Preserve the evidence
An operator needs the incoming request, relevant prior messages, proposed response and any failed action. Keep provider identifiers alongside that record so the person can inspect the actual thread.
A managed inbox can supply a useful operating surface. Your application must still decide when to route work there and which pending actions become invalid.
Cancel stale replies
If a person answers while the agent is composing, the old draft may no longer be appropriate. Tie the proposed send to a conversation version or last-observed message and reject it when that context changes.
Apply the same rule to scheduled follow-ups. A human takeover should cancel or re-evaluate queued actions rather than merely change a label in the interface.
Re-enter deliberately
Decide whether the agent can resume automatically or needs an operator’s explicit release. Record the decision as state, with the relevant conversation identity.
Packaged platforms such as Tuco AI describe different automation modes. Ask how they implement takeover and re-entry in the chosen tier; a mode name is not proof of the behavior.