diff --git a/pkg/agent/loop.go b/pkg/agent/loop.go
index 9315ccf34..ca763b97c 100644
--- a/pkg/agent/loop.go
+++ b/pkg/agent/loop.go
@@ -203,11 +203,30 @@ func registerSharedTools(cfg *config.Config, msgBus *bus.MessageBus, registry *A
 			agent.Tools.Register(multiagent.NewListAgentsTool(resolver))
 		}
 
-		// Update context builder with the complete tools registry
+		// Apply per-agent tool policy (static, startup-time filtering).
+		// This removes denied tools from the registry before the LLM ever sees them.
+		if agentCfg := findAgentConfig(cfg, agentID); agentCfg != nil && agentCfg.ToolPolicy != nil {
+			tools.ApplyPolicy(agent.Tools, tools.ToolPolicy{
+				Allow: agentCfg.ToolPolicy.Allow,
+				Deny:  agentCfg.ToolPolicy.Deny,
+			})
+		}
+
+		// Update context builder with the (possibly filtered) tools registry
 		agent.ContextBuilder.SetToolsRegistry(agent.Tools)
 	}
 }
 
+// findAgentConfig returns the AgentConfig for a given agent ID, or nil if not found.
+func findAgentConfig(cfg *config.Config, agentID string) *config.AgentConfig {
+	for i := range cfg.Agents.List {
+		if routing.NormalizeAgentID(cfg.Agents.List[i].ID) == agentID {
+			return &cfg.Agents.List[i]
+		}
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 func (al *AgentLoop) Run(ctx context.Context) error {
 	al.running.Store(true)
 
diff --git a/pkg/multiagent/handoff.go b/pkg/multiagent/handoff.go
index fe8063f1f..47859f6c9 100644
--- a/pkg/multiagent/handoff.go
+++ b/pkg/multiagent/handoff.go
@@ -156,10 +156,19 @@ func ExecuteHandoff(ctx context.Context, resolver AgentResolver, board *Blackboa
 		maxIter = 10
 	}
 
+	// Apply depth-based tool policy: clone target tools and remove depth-denied tools.
+	// At max depth, leaf agents lose spawn/handoff/list_agents to prevent further chaining.
+	targetTools := target.Tools
+	denyList := tools.DepthDenyList(req.Depth+1, maxDepth)
+	if len(denyList) > 0 && targetTools != nil {
+		targetTools = target.Tools.Clone()
+		tools.ApplyPolicy(targetTools, tools.ToolPolicy{Deny: denyList})
+	}
+
 	loopResult, err := tools.RunToolLoop(ctx, tools.ToolLoopConfig{
 		Provider:      target.Provider,
 		Model:         target.Model,
-		Tools:         target.Tools,
+		Tools:         targetTools,
 		MaxIterations: maxIter,
 		LLMOptions: map[string]any{
 			"max_tokens":  4096,