handoff

Handoff

Overview

Produce a detailed, self-contained context summary that lets work continue in a brand-new session with no access to this one. By default, print the output to chat for the user to copy and paste. Use File Mode (below) only when a context-threshold nudge requests it or the user explicitly asks for a handoff file.

When to Use

• The current context is long and answer quality is degrading.
• You want to start fresh while preserving essential context.
• The context window is approaching capacity.
• You need to carry context to another machine, tool, or teammate.

Not this skill: a short durable fact for future sessions → write a memory file in the persistent memory directory and index it in MEMORY.md (auto-loaded each session). Never write memory files from handoff — the two channels serve different lifetimes. Handoff-first policy: if you run a PreCompact hook that intercepts the first auto-compact of a session (this plugin's own PreCompact hook does not intercept; it only shapes the compaction summary to the template below), its interception message makes this skill the first option: print the handoff immediately and tell the user to /clear and paste it into the fresh session. Only if the user chooses to keep the session does the next auto-compact proceed normally.

If the session has no meaningful work to preserve, say so and stop.

The Gate — should this be a handoff at all?

Ordered tree, run before producing anything; first yes wins. Every move except Continue trades the session — a primary source — for a summary of it, so rule out the cheap options first. (Adapted from mattpocock/skills PHASE-BOUNDARIES.md; /compact drops out as a rung here because compaction is automated and its pressure is visible in the statusline.)

1. Can the session just continue? The next phase needs this phase's reasoning verbatim, or there is comfortable context left. Continue costs nothing and loses nothing.
2. Is the context irrelevant to what comes next? Then recommend /clear and stop — nothing worth carrying, and the old session stays resumable. Clearing a relevant context is the one-way mistake: the why behind the work doesn't come back from reading the diff.
3. Is the remaining work a tightly-scoped AFK task? Send it to a subagent and leave this session untouched — no handoff needed.
4. Is something actually travelling? A handoff earns its lossiness only when context must cross a boundary: a new harness or tool, a new machine or directory, a teammate, or a side task forked mid-phase. That list is the whole clause.