diff --git a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/api.test.ts b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/api.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8f29a105526
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/api.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+import { describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+
+import { agentHandoffText } from "./api";
+import { getProxyBaseUrl } from "../../networking";
+
+vi.mock("../../networking", () => ({ getProxyBaseUrl: vi.fn(() => "https://proxy.test/root/") }));
+
+describe("agent handoff", () => {
+  it("requests bounded trace pages and explains how to retrieve captured content", () => {
+    const text = agentHandoffText("trace-one", null, "source-one");
+    expect(text).toContain("'https://proxy.test/root/v1/traces/trace-one?trace_ref=source-one&page_size=200'");
+    expect(text).toContain("Follow next_cursor");
+    expect(text).toContain("/v1/traces/trace-one/spans/{span_id}");
+    expect(text).toContain("using the same trace_ref");
+  });
+
+  it("selects one span and keeps reserved characters inside their original parameter", () => {
+    const text = agentHandoffText("trace/one", "step?two", "source&cursor=other");
+    expect(text).toContain(
+      "'https://proxy.test/root/v1/traces/trace%2Fone/spans/step%3Ftwo?trace_ref=source%26cursor%3Dother'",
+    );
+    expect(text).toContain("this step's captured input, output, and attributes");
+  });
+
+  it("quotes the proxy URL as shell data", () => {
+    vi.mocked(getProxyBaseUrl).mockReturnValueOnce("https://proxy.test/a'b/$(printf injected)");
+    expect(agentHandoffText("trace-one", "span-one")).toContain(
+      "'https://proxy.test/a'\"'\"'b/$(printf injected)/v1/traces/trace-one/spans/span-one'",
+    );
+  });
+});
diff --git a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/api.ts b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/api.ts
index 16503773dec..c4da02ebf70 100644
--- a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/api.ts
+++ b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/api.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ import {
 } from "../../networking";
 import type {
   SpanDetail,
+  SpanQuery,
+  TraceDetailQuery,
   SpanErrorPage,
   Trace,
   TraceListQuery,
@@ -48,9 +50,23 @@ export interface TracesApi {
 
 /** A one-liner Claude Code / Codex can run to read the trace. */
 export const agentHandoffText = (traceId: string, spanId?: string | null, traceRef?: string): string => {
-  const url = `${getProxyBaseUrl().replace(/\/$/, "")}/v1/traces/${traceId}?format=md${spanId ? `&span_id=${spanId}` : ""}${traceRef ? `&trace_ref=${traceRef}` : ""}`;
+  const base = `${getProxyBaseUrl().replace(/\/$/, "")}/v1/traces/${encodeURIComponent(traceId)}`;
+  const path = spanId ? `${base}/spans/${encodeURIComponent(spanId)}` : base;
+  const query = spanId
+    ? ({ trace_ref: traceRef } satisfies SpanQuery)
+    : ({ trace_ref: traceRef, page_size: 200 } satisfies TraceDetailQuery);
+  const params = new URLSearchParams(
+    Object.entries(query)
+      .filter(([, value]) => value !== undefined)
+      .map(([key, value]) => [key, String(value)]),
+  ).toString();
+  const url = params ? `${path}?${params}` : path;
+  const quotedUrl = "'" + url.replaceAll("'", "'\"'\"'") + "'";
   const what = spanId ? "this step of a LiteLLM agent trace" : "this LiteLLM agent trace";
-  return `Read ${what}, explain what happened, and investigate any issues:\ncurl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $LITELLM_API_KEY" "${url}"`;
+  const guidance = spanId
+    ? "The JSON response contains this step's captured input, output, and attributes. Report missing content and capture warnings explicitly."
+    : `The JSON response contains span summaries. Follow next_cursor by adding cursor to this URL until it is null, preserving trace_ref and page_size. Fetch captured content at ${base}/spans/{span_id}, using the same trace_ref. Report missing content and capture warnings explicitly.`;
+  return `Read ${what}, explain what happened, and investigate any issues:\ncurl --fail-with-body -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $LITELLM_API_KEY" ${quotedUrl}\n${guidance}`;
 };
 
 export function liveTracesApi(accessToken: string): TracesApi {
diff --git a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/detail/run/RunView.test.tsx b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/detail/run/RunView.test.tsx
index d44b0c42621..5536a9cb2c2 100644
--- a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/detail/run/RunView.test.tsx
+++ b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/detail/run/RunView.test.tsx
@@ -492,8 +492,8 @@ describe("RunView", () => {
 
     await user.click(await screen.findByRole("button", { name: /copy for agent/i }));
     expect(copyToClipboard).toHaveBeenCalledWith(agentHandoffText(research.summary.trace_id), "Command copied");
-    expect(agentHandoffText("t1")).toContain('"http://proxy.test/v1/traces/t1?format=md"');
-    expect(agentHandoffText("t1", "s1")).toContain("&span_id=s1");
+    expect(agentHandoffText("t1")).toContain("http://proxy.test/v1/traces/t1?page_size=200");
+    expect(agentHandoffText("t1", "s1")).toContain("/v1/traces/t1/spans/s1");
   });
 
   it("copies a link that reopens just this run", async () => {
diff --git a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/detail/span/DetailPane.integration.test.tsx b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/detail/span/DetailPane.integration.test.tsx
index cf2c32ff5c7..984cabedea6 100644
--- a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/detail/span/DetailPane.integration.test.tsx
+++ b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/lens/traces/detail/span/DetailPane.integration.test.tsx
@@ -345,14 +345,14 @@ describe("DetailPane", () => {
     expect(pane).toHaveTextContent("TimeoutError('slow')");
   });
 
-  it("'Copy step' copies a curl for just this span as Markdown", async () => {
+  it("'Copy step' copies a curl for this span's captured content", async () => {
     const user = userEvent.setup();
     const writeText = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined);
     Object.defineProperty(navigator, "clipboard", { value: { writeText }, configurable: true });
     renderPane(spanRow(llm));
     await user.click(screen.getByRole("button", { name: "Copy step" }));
     await waitFor(() => expect(writeText).toHaveBeenCalled());
-    expect(writeText.mock.calls[0][0]).toContain("http://proxy.test/v1/traces/t1?format=md&span_id=llm1");
+    expect(writeText.mock.calls[0][0]).toContain("http://proxy.test/v1/traces/t1/spans/llm1");
   });
 
   it("renders the assistant tool call as a card and expands a long argument on click", async () => {