create_handoff

A command that writes a handoff document summarizing ongoing work for another coding-agent session. A handoff is a written transfer of context, decisions, and next steps.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when changing sessions or handing work to another agent, especially for ticket-based tasks stored under the thoughts directory.
Why use it?
It reduces the need for the next session to rediscover what was done, what remains, and why key decisions were made.

Command

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add commands/jeffh/claude-plugins/create_handoff
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jeffh/claude-plugins
Per session 10 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 1,142 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00010 $0.01142
Opus 5 $0.00005 $0.00571
Sonnet 5 $0.00002 $0.00228
Haiku 4.5 $0.00001 $0.00114

Measured 2d ago against content hash 461d309c3379, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

create_handoff scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

humanlayer/commands/create_handoff.md · 95 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 95 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Create Handoff

You are tasked with writing a handoff document to hand off your work to another agent in a new session. You will create a handoff document that is thorough, but also concise. The goal is to compact and summarize your context without losing any of the key details of what you're working on.

Process

1. Filepath & Metadata

Use the following information to understand how to create your document: - create your file under thoughts/shared/handoffs/ENG-XXXX/YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS_ENG-ZZZZ_description.md, where: - YYYY-MM-DD is today's date - HH-MM-SS is the hours, minutes and seconds based on the current time, in 24-hour format (i.e. use 13:00 for 1:00 pm) - ENG-XXXX is the ticket number (replace with general if no ticket) - ENG-ZZZZ is the ticket number (omit if no ticket) - description is a brief kebab-case description - Use the spec-metadata skill to generate all relevant metadata - Examples: - With ticket: 2025-01-08_13-55-22_ENG-2166_create-context-compaction.md - Without ticket: 2025-01-08_13-55-22_create-context-compaction.md

2. Handoff writing.

using the above conventions, write your document. use the defined filepath, and the following YAML frontmatter pattern. Use the metadata gathered in step 1, Structure the document with YAML frontmatter followed by content:

Use the following template structure:

---
date: [Current date and time with timezone in ISO format]
researcher: [Researcher name from thoughts status]
git_commit: [Current commit hash]
branch: [Current branch name]
repository: [Repository name]
topic: "[Feature/Task Name] Implementation Strategy"
tags: [implementation, strategy, relevant-component-names]
status: complete
last_updated: [Current date in YYYY-MM-DD format]
last_updated_by: [Researcher name]
type: implementation_strategy
---

# Handoff: ENG-XXXX {very concise description}

## Task(s)
{description of the task(s) that you were working on, along with the status of each (completed, work in progress, planned/discussed). If you are working on an implementation plan, make sure to call out which phase you are on. Make sure to reference the plan document and/or research document(s) you are working from that were provided to you at the beginning of the session, if applicable.}

## Critical References
{List any critical specification documents, architectural decisions, or design docs that must be followed. Include only 2-3 most important file paths. Leave blank if none.}

## Recent changes
{describe recent changes made to the codebase that you made in line:file syntax}

## Learnings
{describe important things that you learned - e.g. patterns, root causes of bugs, or other important pieces of information someone that is picking up your work after you should know. consider listing explicit file paths.}

## Artifacts
{ an exhaustive list of artifacts you produced or updated as filepaths and/or file:line references - e.g. paths to feature documents, implementation plans, etc that should be read in order to resume your work.}

## Action Items & Next Steps
{ a list of action items and next steps for the next agent to accomplish based on your tasks and their statuses}

## Other Notes
{ other notes, references, or useful information - e.g. where relevant sections of the codebase are, where relevant documents are, or other important things you leanrned that you want to pass on but that don't fall into the above categories}

Read the full file on GitHub · 95 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 95 lines · 10 tokens per session scan A 461d309c3379

Subscribe to this mod's changes

create_handoff is a command published in the GitHub repository jeffh/claude-plugins (12 stars, last pushed 18d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 10 tokens to every session and 1,142 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.