handoff
The handoff skill creates a structured markdown document that captures session progress, context, and next steps, enabling seamless continuation when work resumes. Use this when pausing a session to record accomplishments, identify the current pause point, list key files to review, and generate a continuation prompt that helps the next session quickly understand the project state and resume work efficiently.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/boshu2/agentops /tmp/handoff && cp -r /tmp/handoff/images/gemini/skills/handoff ~/.claude/skills/handoffSKILL.md
# Handoff
A handoff works because the next context can act on exact paths and facts
without trusting the author's memory; any line the reader cannot verify from
the artifact itself is decoration, not handoff.
Write a factual session artifact that another context can read. Include:
- caller-supplied goal and summary;
- completed artifacts and exact evidence paths;
- unresolved facts or risks;
- optional caller-supplied continuation text;
- best-effort read-only repository identity when useful.
Do not infer a next action, select work, assign ownership, consume the artifact,
change tracker or Git state, classify a verdict, govern retries, or restart a
runtime. Reading a handoff must not mutate it.
Named failure mode — **optimistic closure**: writing "done" for work whose
evidence path does not exist, so the next context builds on a phantom.
Anti-pattern: narrating the session chronologically ("first I tried…, then…").
Corrective: record end-state facts — artifacts, paths, unresolved risks — and
drop the journey.
Write the artifact to the caller-owned handoff location when the caller names
one; otherwise it is explicit requested proof under `.agents/ao/handoff/`.
There is no permanent generic handoff store — an artifact nobody consumes is
scratch, not evidence.
The ao session handoff and ao session rehydrate commands implement the same
boundary for JSON artifacts under `.agents/ao/handoff/`. The skill may write
Markdown when that better serves a human, but the content semantics remain
identical.
### Earlier default compatibility
JSON artifacts already stored under `.agents/handoff/` remain read-only
evidence. `ao session handoff` writes new JSON to `.agents/ao/handoff/`, while
`ao session rehydrate` searches both directories and selects the newest
lexical handoff id; if an identical filename exists in both, the canonical
`.agents/ao/handoff/` copy wins. No command moves or deletes the legacy files.
Human-authored Markdown consumers receive the exact path, so they do not need
to scan either default. This owning skill contract is the compatibility
authority; no separate migration artifact is required.
Return the artifact path and stop.Use Agent Mail as an optional messaging and Triggers: "coordinate writers", "reserve files".
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Use when converting markdown plans into br beads with dependencies for implementation or swarm execution.
Use when switching AI coding CLI accounts quickly to recover from subscription rate limits or OAuth friction.
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Use when starting non-trivial work, mining lessons, or preventing repeated mistakes with cm procedural memory.
Mine past agent sessions for working Triggers: "cass", "mine past agent sessions for", "cass skill".