From efe542146b58b4ffb79d767f65d6e8ff10ec47be Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: James Hills <70035505+jhills20@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2025 11:21:35 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Return valid JSON for handoff transfers

---
 src/agents/handoffs.py     | 4 ++--
 tests/test_handoff_tool.py | 8 ++++++++
 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/agents/handoffs.py b/src/agents/handoffs.py
index 50dd417a2..76c93a298 100644
--- a/src/agents/handoffs.py
+++ b/src/agents/handoffs.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import inspect
+import json
 from collections.abc import Awaitable
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Callable, Generic, cast, overload
@@ -99,8 +100,7 @@ class Handoff(Generic[TContext]):
     """
 
     def get_transfer_message(self, agent: Agent[Any]) -> str:
-        base = f"{{'assistant': '{agent.name}'}}"
-        return base
+        return json.dumps({"assistant": agent.name})
 
     @classmethod
     def default_tool_name(cls, agent: Agent[Any]) -> str:
diff --git a/tests/test_handoff_tool.py b/tests/test_handoff_tool.py
index a2a06208f..0a8f064f1 100644
--- a/tests/test_handoff_tool.py
+++ b/tests/test_handoff_tool.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import json
 from typing import Any
 
 import pytest
@@ -276,3 +277,10 @@ def test_handoff_input_schema_is_strict():
         "additionalProperties" in obj.input_json_schema
         and not obj.input_json_schema["additionalProperties"]
     ), "Input schema should be strict and have additionalProperties=False"
+
+
+def test_get_transfer_message_is_valid_json() -> None:
+    agent = Agent(name="foo")
+    obj = handoff(agent)
+    transfer = obj.get_transfer_message(agent)
+    assert json.loads(transfer) == {"assistant": agent.name}