Handoff

Workflow

Restore session context when starting a new session or resuming work after a break.

Overview

The handoff skill recovers working context through a structured 6-step process: locating the handoff document, displaying key information, reviewing recent commits, running verification commands, completing an incoming checklist, and falling back gracefully when no handoff exists. It is intentionally read-only — it never modifies files.

When to Use

• Starting a new coding session
• Resuming work after a break or the next day
• Loading context for a task you didn't start
• Picking up where another session left off

Key Features

• Smart file discovery: Searches user-specified path, then HANDOFF.md in project root, then docs/handoff/ directory, then legacy docs/handoff/current.md, with a fallback process
• Context display: Highlights objective, current state, next actions, and risks from the handoff document
• Git alignment check: Compares recent commits against the handoff description and alerts on conflicts
• Verification execution: Runs all test, type-check, and lint commands from the handoff document
• Read-only by design: Restricted to Read, Grep, Glob, and Bash tools — reports failures without auto-fixing
• Graceful fallback: When no handoff exists, suggests claude --continue, shows recent commits, and asks the user for direction

Example Prompts

Load the handoff and resume where we left off.

Start a new session — run the handoff process.

Continue yesterday's work on the auth feature.

What was I working on? Check the handoff document.

Source

• Skill folder: skills/handoff/
• Standard: agentskills.io