orchestrator-handoff

name

orchestrator-handoff

description

Use when the user says "time for a handoff", "start a new orchestrator", asks to preserve session state, or context budget is tight during coordinated agent work. Inputs - current project, Solo process state, active todos/scratchpads/timers, open PRs/issues, recent git activity, and durable memory references. Do not use when the user only wants a brief status update or progress summary; answer that directly without producing a handoff artifact. Produces a read-only handoff scratchpad plus a paste-ready prompt for the next orchestrator session. Escalate if required state sources are unavailable, project identity is ambiguous, or the user wants agents stopped or repo state changed.

Orchestrator Handoff

Evidence tier: P Basis: Practitioner-backed session handoff, incident-transfer, and distributed coordination workflows. Source IDs: Solo MCP scratchpad/process workflow; MemPalace durable-memory workflow; Naoray/skills orchestrator-handoff prior art. Reviewed: 2026-05-12

Generate a handoff prompt when:

• User signals session-switch intent ("time for a handoff", "start a new orchestrator").
• Context window budget getting tight.
• In-flight work spans hours and benefits from a fresh PTY.

What the handoff captures

Pull from three sources + synthesize into one prompt:

1. Solo state — list_processes, todo_list completed=false, scratchpad_list, open timers.
2. Git/PR state — gh pr list, gh issue list, git log on active branches.
3. MemPalace durable memory — mempalace_search wing=<project> for locked decisions, north star, rulebooks, drawers recorded this session.

Output format

Write a scratchpad handoff/<project-slug>-<YYYY-MM-DD> with structure:

Required sections

• Session snapshot — date, orchestrator pid (will change in new session), what was shipped today.
• In-flight agents — list of running solo process IDs + what they're doing + how to harvest them.
• Active timers — pending idle-timers on which processes.
• Open PRs — per-PR: URL, state, who needs to act, link to review scratchpad.
• Open decisions — user-facing questions queued, with options + orchestrator's lean.
• Locked decisions (last 24h) — with MemPalace drawer IDs for depth.
• Active scratchpads — which ones new orchestrator should preserve vs. can archive.
• Next intended wave — what the orchestrator would dispatch next if it continued.

Optional sections (include when relevant)

• North star / project compass (cite drawer ID — don't duplicate content).
• Calibration data reference (task runtimes, reviewer reliability).
• Adopter context (who the users are, what they're waiting on).

Process

1. Query mcp__solo__whoami for orchestrator pid.
2. Run state queries in parallel — list_processes, todo_list, scratchpad_list, gh pr list, gh issue list, mempalace_search.
3. Synthesize. Do NOT dump raw tool output — summarize.
4. Write scratchpad handoff/<slug>.
5. Print the consumable prompt — a condensed instruction the user pastes into a new Claude Code session that starts with /orchestrator-mode + /solo-orchestration invocation + references the handoff scratchpad.

Rules

• Handoff is a READ-ONLY synthesis. Do not stop in-flight agents. Do not archive scratchpads. Do not close processes.
• Don't echo MemPalace drawer contents into the scratchpad — just reference the drawer IDs. Keeps scratchpad small + durable.
• Handoff scratchpad naming: handoff/<project-slug>-<YYYY-MM-DD>. If more than one per day, append -hhmm.

Example trigger invocation

User says: "time for a handoff" → orchestrator invokes this skill → produces scratchpad + prints 400-word prompt → user copies prompt into a fresh orchestrator session.