Handoff
Write compact caller-authored session evidence without choosing continuation. Triggers: "handoff", "write compact session handoff".From its SKILL.md
npx -y skills add boshu2/agentops --skill handoffAssembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.
SKILL.md
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Handoff
A handoff works because the next context can act on exact paths and facts without trusting the author's memory; any line the reader cannot verify from the artifact itself is decoration, not handoff.
Write a factual session artifact that another context can read. Include:
- caller-supplied goal and summary;
- completed artifacts and exact evidence paths;
- unresolved facts or risks;
- optional caller-supplied continuation text;
- best-effort read-only repository identity when useful.
Do not infer a next action, select work, assign ownership, consume the artifact, change tracker or Git state, classify a verdict, govern retries, or restart a runtime. Reading a handoff must not mutate it.
Named failure mode — optimistic closure: writing "done" for work whose evidence path does not exist, so the next context builds on a phantom.
Anti-pattern: narrating the session chronologically ("first I tried…, then…"). Corrective: record end-state facts — artifacts, paths, unresolved risks — and drop the journey.
Write the artifact to the caller-owned handoff location when the caller names
one; otherwise it is explicit requested proof under .agents/ao/handoff/.
There is no permanent generic handoff store — an artifact nobody consumes is
scratch, not evidence.
The ao session handoff and ao session rehydrate commands implement the same
boundary for JSON artifacts under .agents/ao/handoff/. The skill may write
Markdown when that better serves a human, but the content semantics remain
identical.
Earlier default compatibility
JSON artifacts already stored under .agents/handoff/ remain read-only
evidence. ao session handoff writes new JSON to .agents/ao/handoff/, while
ao session rehydrate searches both directories and selects the newest
lexical handoff id; if an identical filename exists in both, the canonical
.agents/ao/handoff/ copy wins. No command moves or deletes the legacy files.
Human-authored Markdown consumers receive the exact path, so they do not need
to scan either default. This owning skill contract is the compatibility
authority; no separate migration artifact is required.
Return the artifact path and stop.
What ships with it: 1 file
0 B alongside SKILL.md
references/
- .gitkeep0 B
Gives 0 of the 12 instructions most agent orchestration skills give
Counted across 848 of the 1,300 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-09-06
- Dispatch one agent per independent problem domainin 56 of 848, across 42 files
- Run full test suite after integrationin 55 of 848, across 42 files
- Verify fixes do not conflictin 40 of 848, across 32 files
- Review each summary when agents returnin 40 of 848, across 31 files
- Write a handoff document summarising the current conversationin 30 of 848, across 25 files
- Reference existing artifacts by path or URLin 26 of 848, across 24 files
- Give each agent a specific scopein 19 of 848, across 10 files
- Give each agent a clear goalin 19 of 848, across 10 files
- Include a suggested skills section in the documentin 18 of 848, across 16 files
- Tailor the doc to the user argumentsin 18 of 848, across 15 files
- Issue all subagent dispatches in the same responsein 17 of 848, across 11 files
- Use git worktrees for isolationin 17 of 848, across 8 files
Said here and by no other author read
- Write a factual session artifact
- Include caller-supplied goal and summary
- Include completed artifacts and exact evidence paths
- Include unresolved facts or risks
- Record end-state facts and drop the journey
- Return the artifact path and stop
Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once.