Task Delegation
The transfer of responsibility for achieving an outcome from one agent to another, where the receiving agent determines how the outcome is reached.
Why it matters
Delegation between agents is delegation of authority, whether or not the framework models it that way. The moment agents delegate across organizational boundaries — which A2A is explicitly designed to enable — 'who decided' stops being answerable inside any single institution.
What it is not
These are routinely confused with Task Delegation. The distinctions are not pedantic — each one has consequences for how a system is governed.
Invocation specifies the how. Delegation specifies only the what and leaves the how to the receiver.
Delegation passes work outward or downward. Escalation passes a decision upward for a judgment the delegate is not permitted to make.
Relationships
Typed edges into the rest of the ontology. These are what make the canon traversable rather than merely readable.
| Verb | Target | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
delegatesTo | Agent Identity | The subject transfers authority to the object. |
constrainedBy | Trust Boundary | Inverse of constrains. The subject bounds what the object may do. |
addresses | Accountability | The subject speaks to the object as a question or concern. |
dependsOn | A2A | The subject cannot function correctly without the object. |
Record
| Canonical identifier | QIS-TERM-00008 |
| Status | Canonical industry term |
| Adoption | Emerging |
| Domain · Layer | Capability · Governance |
| Origin | A2A protocol; long-standing in multi-agent systems research. |
| Semantic aliases | None recorded. |
| First published | 2026-08-02 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-08-02 · 180-day cycle |
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