sessionhandoff

name	SessionHandoff
version	0.1.0
description	Continue work from another agent's session — auto-detect the most relevant saved session, read its transcript, summarize, and pick up the work. USE WHEN continue from another agent, hand off a session, pick up where codex or gemini left off, summarize a saved session or checkpoint, inspect recent sessions. Not for searching old work by topic — use SessionSearch for that.
allowed-tools	Bash, Read
upstream	https://github.com/entireio/skills/blob/main/skills/session-handoff/SKILL.md

SessionHandoff

Hand off a captured agent session into this one: detect the right session, read its transcript, summarize, continue the work. Backend commands and the checkpoint-id variant live in @Entire.md.

Response Format

Begin the first response to this skill invocation with the line:

Entire Session Handoff:

followed by a blank line, then the content. Apply the header to the first response of the invocation only — not on follow-up turns and not on error / early-exit responses (no sessions found, transcript missing). Its presence signals the skill ran and produced real output. The "Unanswered Question" branch still gets the header.

STOP — Read these rules before doing ANYTHING

1. Do NOT ask clarifying questions. Auto-detect the session and read the transcript.
2. Do NOT run git log, git status, git branch, ps aux, or any other exploratory commands. Use only the backend CLI commands listed in @Entire.md.
3. Do NOT say "Would you like me to continue?" or "Let me know if you want me to pick this up." Just read the transcript and start working. Exception: if the previous agent asked the user a question that was never answered, you MUST ask the user that question before proceeding.

Flow: Active session handoff (default — also covers bare invocation and "current"/"active")

Step 1: Resolve the canonical worktree path

Query the current session (@Entire.md). If the output is valid JSON, read its worktree_path field — that is the canonical worktree root for this invocation, set by the backend itself. Use it verbatim in the next step (no cwd heuristic needed; symlinks, /private/var//var quirks, and subdirectory invocation are all handled).

If the output is not JSON (no active session in this worktree), set the canonical worktree path to null and rely on the bidirectional prefix-match fallback in Step 2.

Step 2: Pick the session

List all sessions as JSON (@Entire.md). Each entry has session_id, agent, status, worktree_path, started_at, last_active, turns, last_prompt, files_touched. Apply filters in this order:

1. Worktree scope. If you got a canonical worktree path in Step 1, keep entries where worktree_path equals it exactly. Otherwise, keep entries where cwd starts with worktree_path or worktree_path starts with cwd. If either filter yields zero entries, fall back to the unscoped list — better to summarize a slightly-off session than to refuse the handoff.
2. User-named agent filter (optional). If the user said "codex", "claude", "kiro", "gemini", etc., keep only entries whose agent matches case-insensitively as a substring (so gemini matches Gemini CLI).
3. Drop self. Drop entries where agent matches the agent currently running this skill. If this empties the list, undo this filter and keep self — the user is asking you to summarize your own current session for compaction. Note that fact in the announcement (Step 5).
4. Pick most recent. Sort by last_active (fall back to started_at) descending; take the first.

If filtering still leaves zero entries (truly nothing in the list, even self), print a one-line error (no header) and stop.

Step 3: Stream the raw transcript

Stream the session transcript to a temp file (@Entire.md). The snapshot is bounded to the file size at command start.

Step 4: Extract conversation content

Extract the original task (head) and final state (tail) from the transcript using the per-agent extraction recipes in @Entire.md — transcript formats differ by agent. Do not show the raw extracted lines to the user. They are inputs for Step 5.

Step 5: Announce, summarize, present

Announcement. First line of the body: Handing off <agent> session — <turns> turns, last active <relative time>, ID <first-8-of-session-id>. If the picked session is your own (Step 2 self-filter fallback), prepend a one-clause note: Self-handoff (no other sessions in this worktree). This gives the user a chance to catch a wrong pick before reading the summary.

Summary structure (skip any section with no genuine content — do not hallucinate filler):

1. Task Overview — the user's core request, success criteria, stated constraints.
2. Current State — completed work: files created/modified, key decisions, artifacts produced.
3. Important Discoveries — technical constraints found, rationale behind decisions, errors hit and how they were resolved, failed approaches and why.
4. Next Steps — specific remaining actions, blockers, priority ordering.
5. Context to Preserve — user preferences, domain details, commitments made during the session.
6. Unanswered Question (only if applicable) — if the previous agent's last message asked the user a question or presented options that were never answered, capture it exactly as asked.

A one-bug-fix session might legitimately have only Task Overview + Current State + Next Steps. A pure-research session might have only Task Overview + Important Discoveries. Empty sections are a feature; pad them only if you have real content.

Continue. Show announcement + summary.

• If section 6 exists, ask the user that question and wait. Do NOT pick a default.
• Otherwise, immediately pick up the work — plan, code, or whatever the next step is. Do not ask permission.

Flow: Checkpoint handoff (user gives a checkpoint ID)

Enumerate the checkpoint's sessions, stream the relevant transcripts, then merge into the same five-section summary — full procedure in @Entire.md. Treat earlier sessions as the source of "Important Discoveries" and "Context to Preserve"; the latest session feeds "Current State" and "Next Steps". Announce as Handing off checkpoint <short-id> — <M> sessions, <total turns> turns total.