session-handoff

session-handoff is a skill for Claude Code from ashaykubal/essential-agents-skills. It costs 61 tokens per session (936 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A standard format for writing session handoff documents, which record progress, decisions, files, and next steps so another session can continue work. It requires specific YAML headings, filenames, and Unix line endings.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when closing a session, transferring work to another session, reaching the stated token-use threshold, or when a user requests a handoff.
Why use it?
It prevents important context from being lost when a coding session ends or approaches its context limit. A consistent format makes handoffs easier to read and process.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: user-invocable in frontmatter.

Good fit Use it when closing a session, transferring work to another session, reaching the stated token-use threshold, or when a user requests a handoff.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/ashaykubal/essential-agents-skills/session-handoff
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.

Any agent
npx skills add ashaykubal/essential-agents-skills --skill session-handoff
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ashaykubal/essential-agents-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for session-handoff

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/ashaykubal/essential-agents-skills/session-handoff/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/ashaykubal/essential-agents-skills/session-handoff)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/ashaykubal/essential-agents-skills/session-handoff"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/ashaykubal/essential-agents-skills/session-handoff/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for session-handoff

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/ashaykubal/essential-agents-skills/session-handoff"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/ashaykubal/essential-agents-skills/session-handoff.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 61 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 936 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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 5.1 $0.00061 $0.00936
Opus 5 $0.00030 $0.00468
Sonnet 5 $0.00012 $0.00187
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00094

Measured 12d ago against content hash 11eb3e60a20f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

session-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 12d 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.

skills/session-handoff/SKILL.md · 140 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 140 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Session Handoff

Create handoff documents that enable seamless context transfer between sessions.

Critical Requirements

Line Endings

Use LF (Unix) line endings only. Never CRLF.

  • Use the Write tool directly (handles line endings correctly)
  • Never copy-paste from Windows clipboard
  • If you see ^M characters, rewrite the file

File Naming

Pattern: sessions/session_{N}_{YYYYMMDD}.md

  • {N}: Session number (integer, no leading zeros)
  • {YYYYMMDD}: Date without separators

Examples: session_5_20260104.md (correct), session_05_20260104.md (wrong)

Handoff Template

# Session {N} Handoff

```yaml
session: {N}
date: {YYYY-MM-DD}
phase: "P{X} - {Phase Name}"
task: "P{X}.{Y} - {Task Name}"
status: {completed | in_progress | blocked}
tokens_end: "~{X}K ({Y}%)"
```

---

## Session Summary

{2-3 sentences on outcomes, not process. What was achieved?}

## What Was Accomplished

- [x] {Completed item with file path}
- [x] {Completed item with file path}
- [ ] {Incomplete item - carried forward}

## Files Created/Modified

| File | Action | Lines | Purpose |
|------|--------|-------|---------|
| {path} | Created | ~{N} | {Brief description} |
| {path} | Modified | +{N}/-{M} | {What changed} |

## Verification Status

| Check | Status | Notes |
|-------|--------|-------|
| Typecheck | {Pass/Fail/Skipped} | |
| Lint | {Pass/Fail/Skipped} | |
| Tests | {Pass/Fail/Skipped} | {X/Y if applicable} |

## Technical Decisions

### {Decision Title}
- **Decision**: {What was decided}
- **Rationale**: {Why}
- **Impact**: {What it affects}

## What's Next

1. {Specific actionable step}
2. {Next step}

## Blockers / Issues

{List blockers or "None"}

## Learnings

{Patterns discovered or "None"}

Section Guidelines

YAML Header (Required)

The YAML header enables metrics collection. All fields required:

Field Format Example
session Integer session: 5
date YYYY-MM-DD date: 2026-01-04
phase Quoted string phase: "P1 - Foundation"
task Quoted string task: "P1.2 - Test Auditor"
status Enum status: completed
tokens_end Quoted string tokens_end: "~95K (48%)"

Read the full file on GitHub · 140 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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. 12d ago First seen · 140 lines · 61 tokens per session scan A 11eb3e60a20f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

session-handoff is a skill published in the GitHub repository ashaykubal/essential-agents-skills (2 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 61 tokens to every session and 936 once invoked, about $0.0003 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 2026-08-31.

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