Handoff

Handoff

Preserve the smallest point-in-time continuation package another context needs to orient safely.

A handoff transfers current context. A Working Record is living task memory. When one exists, use track-work when available to reconcile changed task state, reference it from the handoff, and add only transfer-specific context the recipient would otherwise miss.

A handoff is memory, not authority. It may record where approval or authority came from, but it does not create either, freeze a Plan, override live evidence, or prove completion.

Choose The Transfer Shape

• Chat handoff: use the current response or a concise continuation summary for an immediate pause, context change, or ownership transfer. Do not create a file when the response is sufficient.
• Durable handoff: use an available file or repository tool and an established destination only when durable continuation context is requested or approved.
• User-provided destination: follow the requested safe location and format.

Do not silently promote chat context into durable memory. Ask one direct question when the destination changes durability, privacy, repository state, intended audience, or authority and the user has not chosen. A requested destination does not make its tool available; if it cannot be accessed, return the handoff in chat and name the limitation.

Read [handoff templates](references/templates.md) after the transfer shape and recipient are clear.

Prepare From Live State

Before packaging the handoff:

1. Inspect the current worktree, active artifacts, and evidence needed for the transfer through available tools or supplied material.
2. Reconcile an existing Working Record when its current state, slice, decisions, checkpoints, or next action changed.
3. Identify the recipient, purpose, and boundary being crossed.
4. Separate the next accepted action and its authority source from an unapproved recommendation.

Do not create a Working Record merely because a handoff exists. Do not change task lifecycle or slice state merely because continuation context is requested.

Capture What Changes Continuation

Include only what the recipient needs to choose or perform the next sound action:

• goal, accepted outcome, and owning sources;
• current state and Workflow route, when one exists;
• completed work and what fresh evidence supports or does not support;
• relevant worktree, process, environment, or artifact identity needed to prevent loss or false claims;
• active decisions and the source that established them;
• invalidated assumptions, deviations, and affected Spec or Plan sections;
• unresolved owner decisions, missing evidence, blockers, and stop conditions;
• next accepted action with its authority source, or the recommended next route when not yet approved;
• exact pointers the recipient must reopen.

A Plan preserves stable strategy. Record live progress and deviations in the Working Record, then point to both rather than copying evolving state into the handoff.

For a learning slice, preserve the question, evidence, and discard, revise, or promote result. Exploratory output does not become production behavior through transfer.

For review continuity, preserve the review number, reviewed state identity, reviewer judgment, adjudicated judgment, active-agent item adjudication, material Accepted or Open items, changed state, and whether follow-up review remains selected. A new context or reviewer does not reset the review budget.

Keep It Compact And Safe

Link to live sources instead of copying Specs, Plans, Working Records, diffs, logs, transcripts, or full reviewer output. Include a narrow dirty-state list only when omission risks loss, overwrite, duplicate work, or a false completion claim.

Do not include:

• unsupported completion, verification, review, commit, integration, release, or launch claims;
• volatile inventories or background that does not change continuation;
• secrets, credentials, tokens, unrestricted personal data, or unnecessary private payloads;
• instructions to trust the handoff without reinspection;
• unapproved work presented as the next executable action.

Stop when safe transfer would require inventing intent, authority, evidence, destination, or status. Use decision-gate when available when the remaining choice belongs to the user.

Boundary Examples

• A Working Record already contains current state → reference it and add only transfer-specific context.
• A context change is immediate and the current response is sufficient → return a chat handoff; do not create durable documentation.
• Durable continuation is approved and an appropriate tool is available → use the established destination and stable source pointers.
• The handoff conflicts with live code or evidence → live evidence wins; return the conflict to workflow when available.

Resume Safely

When resuming:

1. Reopen the named source truth, Working Record when present, and current worktree state when those sources are accessible.
2. Verify important completion, evidence, review, commit, and artifact-identity claims before repeating them.
3. Compare the recorded route, decisions, and assumptions with live evidence.
4. Preserve what still holds and identify only the invalidated layer.
5. Return the live state and supported next action to workflow when available.

Do not edit merely because the handoff names a next action. workflow, when available, confirms the route and authority; execute-work, when available, establishes any next slice.

Report And Stop

State the transfer shape and destination, evidence and sources preserved, current route, next accepted action and authority or recommended route, and material gaps or intentionally omitted sensitive context.

At a selected pause or transfer boundary, stop after delivering the handoff. Creating continuity memory by itself does not complete, block, abandon, or supersede the active slice or task. Never claim that a source, worktree, artifact, checkpoint, review, release, or launch was inspected or verified unless an available tool performed that inspection and its result was observed.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: hassan-mohiddin
• Source: hassan-mohiddin/freeflow-claude-web-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.