Handoff

<skill id="handoff"> <purpose> Compile the current task into an authoritative, resumable JSON manifest. The JSON file is CANONICAL. A markdown rendering may be generated for humans but is never a second source of truth.

Why manifest-first + bounded (EXP-L21): what a decision needs is flat (~50-70k tokens) regardless of session length; the accumulating transcript is almost pure decoration by late session. A handoff that says "read the conversation" recreates the waste. A handoff that pins exact selectors + phases lets the next session reconstruct ONLY the load-bearing state.

Reference: skills/context-mgmt/SKILL.md </purpose>

<on_start>

agentdb read-start

</on_start>

<phase id="1_extract" name="EXTRACT STATE"> Capture (these become manifest sections, not prose): - objective: goal, success_conditions (observable), non_goals - contract: governing _meta/contracts/ file if one exists, invariants, assumptions, decisions_accepted (+rationale), alternatives_rejected (+reason) — rejected paths are as valuable as accepted ones; they stop re-exploration - workflow.phases: name each phase of the work; status inherited (done, with evidence) | required (still to do). Add invalidation_rules: what live-state change would flip an inherited phase back to required. Rules use typed `when.event` plus optional `when.path_glob`; never prose trigger strings. - open_threads, warnings (failed approaches — never re-explore silently) - tier (1/2/3) in identity </phase> <phase id="2_gather" name="GATHER EVIDENCE"> ```bash git branch --show-current && git rev-parse HEAD && git status --short git log --oneline -10 agentdb query "SELECT * FROM context WHERE type IN ('contract','checkpoint') ORDER BY ts DESC LIMIT 5" ``` Pin artifacts: for each file the next session must trust unchanged, `shasum -a 256 <path>` → provenance.artifacts[{path, sha256, purpose}]. </phase>

<ask_user> Use AskUserQuestion when: state extraction complete, before writing the manifest Ask: "Anything to add to the handoff? Blockers, decisions, or context I might have missed?" Options: looks complete, add context, skip handoff </ask_user>

<phase id="3_hygiene" name="GIT HYGIENE"> uncommitted: commit with "wip: checkpoint before handoff" or stash (document it) push: push current branch to remote — a local-only handoff is stranded work </phase> <phase id="4_compile" name="COMPILE THE MANIFEST"> Write `_meta/handoffs/{name}-{date}.json` conforming to schemas/kernel.handoff.v1.schema.json.

Context section — the attention budget is the design center:

• policy.mode: advisory (default) | bounded (extra loads must be justified + ledgered) | sealed (forbidden globs hook-blocked; for controlled experiments)
• required: SELECTORS, not whole files, wherever a section suffices: {path, heading: "## X"} · {path, lines: "A-B"} · {path, grep: "pat", context: N} · {git_diff: "revA..revB"} — each with a reason
• forbidden: globs the resume must NOT touch (sealed mode enforces via guard-context hook)
• budget: target_tokens (aim: boot + manifest + 2-12k selected history, per EXP-L21), max_tokens (hard stop)

Execution section: entry_phase, entrypoint (the literal first operation), stop_conditions, checkpoints (when to emit kernel.checkpoint/v1 during the resumed work).

Resume section: one-line continuation prompt: /kernel:ingest resume from _meta/handoffs/{file}.json

JSON strings are always quoted, so sha/commit fields cannot type-drift (the old YAML fails validation). </phase>

<phase id="5_validate" name="VALIDATE — MANDATORY"> ```bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-.}/orchestration/manifest/kernel-manifest" validate _meta/handoffs/{file}.json ``` A handoff that does not validate DOES NOT EXIST. Fix and re-validate before reporting done. Optional human rendering: a .md next to it, first line `# RENDERED FROM {file}.json — NOT AUTHORITATIVE`. </phase> <delivery> 1. `kernel-manifest validate` passes (above) 2. Commit: "docs: handoff manifest for {name}" 3. Push to remote </delivery>

<on_complete>

agentdb write-end '{"skill":"handoff","saved_to":"_meta/handoffs/{file}.json","branch":"X","tier":N}'
# If non-local profile: post handoff summary to GitHub Discussions (Agent Logs category)
# Suggest /kernel:retrospective if learnings accumulated across sessions

</on_complete>

</skill>