create-handoff

name	create-handoff
description	Create handoff document for transferring work to another session

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:

First, determine the session name from existing handoffs:

ls -td thoughts/shared/handoffs/*/ 2>/dev/null | head -1 | xargs basename

This returns the most recently modified handoff folder name (e.g., open-source-release). Use this as the handoff folder name.

If no handoffs exist, use general as the folder name.

Create your file under: thoughts/shared/handoffs/{session-name}/YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM_description.yaml, where:

• {session-name} is from existing handoffs (e.g., open-source-release) or general if none exist
• YYYY-MM-DD is today's date
• HH-MM is the current time in 24-hour format (no seconds needed)
• description is a brief kebab-case description

Examples:

• thoughts/shared/handoffs/open-source-release/2026-01-08_16-30_memory-system-fix.yaml
• thoughts/shared/handoffs/general/2026-01-08_16-30_bug-investigation.yaml

2. Write YAML handoff (~400 tokens vs ~2000 for markdown)

CRITICAL: Use EXACTLY this YAML format. Do NOT deviate or use alternative field names.

The goal: and now: fields are shown in the statusline - they MUST be named exactly this.

---
session: {session-name from ledger}
date: YYYY-MM-DD
status: complete|partial|blocked
outcome: SUCCEEDED|PARTIAL_PLUS|PARTIAL_MINUS|FAILED
---

goal: {What this session accomplished - shown in statusline}
now: {What next session should do first - shown in statusline}
test: {Command to verify this work, e.g., pytest tests/test_foo.py}

done_this_session:
  - task: {First completed task}
    files: [{file1.py}, {file2.py}]
  - task: {Second completed task}
    files: [{file3.py}]

blockers: [{any blocking issues}]

questions: [{unresolved questions for next session}]

decisions:
  - {decision_name}: {rationale}

findings:
  - {key_finding}: {details}

worked: [{approaches that worked}]
failed: [{approaches that failed and why}]

next:
  - {First next step}
  - {Second next step}

files:
  created: [{new files}]
  modified: [{changed files}]

Field guide:

• goal: + now: - REQUIRED, shown in statusline
• done_this_session: - What was accomplished with file references
• decisions: - Important choices and rationale
• findings: - Key learnings
• worked: / failed: - What to repeat vs avoid
• next: - Action items for next session

DO NOT use alternative field names like session_goal, objective, focus, current, etc. The statusline parser looks for EXACTLY goal: and now: - nothing else works.

3. Confirm Outcome & Index into Recall (REQUIRED)

IMPORTANT: Before responding to the user, you MUST confirm the session outcome.

Use the AskUserQuestion tool with these exact options:

Question: "How did this session go?"
Options:
  - SUCCEEDED: Task completed successfully
  - PARTIAL_PLUS: Mostly done, minor issues remain
  - PARTIAL_MINUS: Some progress, major issues remain
  - FAILED: Task abandoned or blocked

The outcome lives in the YAML frontmatter (outcome: field, written in step 2 — it is REQUIRED there). After the user responds, make sure that frontmatter value matches their choice (edit the handoff file if it differs).

Then index the handoff you just created into archival_memory so recall can surface it — with its outcome — in future sessions:

# Index THE handoff you created in step 1 (not "whatever is newest in a stale table").
# index_handoffs.py is idempotent — re-runs on the same path insert nothing new.
PROJECT_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || echo "${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}")
HANDOFF_PATH="thoughts/shared/handoffs/{session-name}/YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM_description.yaml"  # the file from step 1
cd "$PROJECT_ROOT/opc" && uv run python scripts/core/index_handoffs.py --apply --only-path "$HANDOFF_PATH"

This parses the handoff's fields (goal, done, decisions, findings, next, blockers) into per-field recall entries tagged with source=handoff and outcome=<your outcome>, so a future session's /recall surfaces this work with the correct outcome.

Do NOT use artifact_mark.py --latest — the handoffs SQL table it writes is deprecated/unpopulated, and --latest silently marks a stale January row. See that script's docstring.

4. Confirm completion

After marking the outcome, respond to the user:

Handoff created! Outcome marked as [OUTCOME].

Resume in a new session with:
/resume_handoff path/to/handoff.yaml

---

##. Additional Notes & Instructions

• more information, not less. This is a guideline that defines the minimum of what a handoff should be. Always feel free to include more information if necessary.
• be thorough and precise. include both top-level objectives, and lower-level details as necessary.
• avoid excessive code snippets. While a brief snippet to describe some key change is important, avoid large code blocks or diffs; do not include one unless it's necessary (e.g. pertains to an error you're debugging). Prefer using /path/to/file.ext:line references that an agent can follow later when it's ready, e.g. packages/dashboard/src/app/dashboard/page.tsx:12-24