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.
npx skills add tmusser/ai-engineering-skills --skill handoffgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/tmusser/ai-engineering-skillsWrote 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.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills/handoff)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills/handoff"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills/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.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills/handoff"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/tmusser/ai-engineering-skills/handoff.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00043 | $0.02337 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00017 | $0.00935 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00009 | $0.00467 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00004 | $0.00234 |
Grade A, and why
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 18d 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 195 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Handoff
Purpose
Compress context into a launchpad for the next session. A handoff is not a transcript — it is durable state that lets a fresh agent continue safely without the full chat history.
A handoff is also not authoritative merely because the file exists. A fresh session must establish both snapshot freshness and internal resume trust before treating an existing HANDOFF.md as current state.
When to use
Use at the end of a session, before switching agents, or before pausing work.
When resuming from an existing handoff, run the fresh-session trust gate before using its status, next task, verification claims, referenced files, unresolved items, or analysis checkpoint as current state.
Inputs
- SPEC.md, PLAN.md, TODO.md, VERIFY.md
- Optional
GOTCHAS.mdwhen recurring project sharp edges have been recorded - Active modes, current phase, next gate
- Analysis checkpoint when one exists:
FRESH | NOT_NEEDED | STALE | REQUIRED - Compatibility seams, invalid-if constraints, verify gate status, review-required items, next gate command when relevant
- Context risk level
- Active debugging hypothesis (if any)
- When relevant, carry loop state forward: iterations attempted, best known artifact, rejected attempts, current feedback signal, remaining budget, stop condition, and human review trigger.
- Branch, commit, dirty state
- Changed files, working/failing commands, unverified files
- Important decisions, open decisions, traps
- Freshness anchors when Git state is available: snapshot commit + workspace fingerprint
- Required resume files that must still exist before the next task can start
- Exact recorded verify-gate status and review-required state expected at resume
Freshness rule
The bundled scripts/handoff_freshness.py helper lives inside this skill directory.
Resolve the active handoff skill directory, then use the helper to stamp and check
HANDOFF.md.
Status semantics:
PASS— non-handoff repository state still matches the stamped snapshot.STALE— repository state changed after the handoff snapshot. Treat the handoff as advisory only, re-read live project state, and regenerate it before resuming.REVIEW_REQUIRED— freshness could not be established. Do not silently trust the handoff as current state.
What ships with it
2 files 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.
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.
- 18d ago Changed · +33 lines d731e52dd891
- 1mo ago First seen · 162 lines · 43 tokens per session scan A 2c0545a6ae73
handoff is a skill published in the GitHub repository tmusser/ai-engineering-skills (6 stars, last pushed 5d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 43 tokens to every session and 2,337 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5.5. 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.
Other skills, from other repositories
dwi-budget
Set and report practical token, context, time, tool-call, and coordination boundaries for coding-agent work. Use when resource use is unclear or needs a checkpoint. Do not invent measurements, monetary savings, cache benefit, or precision that the harness does not expose.
concise-mode
Use this skill to enforce high-density, zero-filler, token-efficient communication. Strips conversational fluff, polite preamble, redundant summaries, and repetitive apologies to maximize reasoning density, reduce latency, and conserve context window budget.
ask-matt
Ask which skill or flow fits your situation. A router over the user-invoked skills in this repo.
peon-ping-toggle
Toggle peon-ping sound notifications on/off. Use when user wants to mute, unmute, pause, or resume peon sounds during a Claude Code session. Also handles config changes like volume, pack rotation, categories — any peon-ping setting.
peon-ping-log
Log exercise reps for the Peon Trainer. Use when user says they did pushups, squats, or wants to log reps. Examples - "/peon-ping-log 25 pushups", "/peon-ping-log 30 squats", "log 50 pushups".
create-prompt
Create prompts for sidecar workspaces. Covers prompt structure (name, ticketMode, body), template variables (ticket with fallbacks), config file locations (global vs project), and scope overrides. Use when creating or modifying prompts in sidecar config files.