Handoff

Handoff: resumable session snapshot

Write one artifact that lets a cold session — the same person tomorrow, a fresh agent, or a colleague — resume this work without replaying the conversation. Chat is ephemeral; this file is the persistence layer for a single hand-off point.

handoff writes exactly one surface: .outline/handoffs/<slug>-<ts>.md. It does not commit, does not delegate, and does not open a PR.

When to apply / NOT

Apply:

• Context is running low and the task is unfinished.
• End of a work block, or pausing mid-task.
• Switching agents (Claude → agy/codex/grok) and the next one needs the state, not the transcript.

Do NOT:

• Delegate a task to another AI — antigravity, codex, and grok own that.
• Package a branch for review — commit-push-pr and pr-review own that.

Write procedure

1. Resolve the workspace and self-ignore it (mirrors subagent-driven's sd-workspace):

   root=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)   # cwd fallback outside a repo
   mkdir -p "$root/.outline/handoffs"
   printf '*\n' > "$root/.outline/handoffs/.gitignore"          # `*` also ignores the .gitignore itself
   

   The handoff stays local and gitignored — it never enters git status or a commit. To hand off to a colleague on another machine, copy the file out (paste it, or attach it to a PR/issue).

2. Name it. slug = kebab-case of the task title; ts=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S) (seconds included so two runs in the same minute can't collide). Write $root/.outline/handoffs/<slug>-<ts>.md. Runs leave a trail of timestamped files rather than overwriting one. Stale snapshots are yours to prune.

3. Fill the format below. Omit any section that is empty — an empty heading is noise. Echo the absolute path of the written file to chat (relative paths are not clickable in most terminals). If arguments were passed, tailor ## Goal and ## Next to that focus. Redact secrets, API keys, and PII because the handoff may be copied off-machine. Reference specs, plans, ADRs, commits, and diffs by path or URL; never paste their content.

To resume

The recency-discovery command for finding the active handoff lives in references/resume.md — read it when resuming (a session that only needs to write a new handoff never reaches it).

Format

Purpose-built for cold resume. Terse field: value header, then only the sections that carry signal:

# Handoff: <one-line task title>
branch: <name @ short-sha> (<clean | dirty: N files>)

## Goal
<1-2 lines: what we're achieving and why>

## Done
- <completed step + evidence: commit sha / passing check>

## In flight
- <the half-built thing: file:line, what's written, what's still missing>

## Next
1. <the single next concrete action>

## Key files
- path:line — why it matters

## Decisions & constraints
- <decision + the why, so the next session does not relitigate it>

## Blockers / open questions
- <what is stuck; what needs a human or an answer>

## Suggested skills
- `<skill-name>`: <why it should run next>

## Verify
<exact command(s) to confirm state; last known result>

Edge cases

• No git repo — $root falls back to cwd; branch: reads (no repo).
• Detached HEAD / dirty tree — that is the state worth capturing; record it in branch:.
• Nothing in flight — omit the section. A thin handoff (Goal + Next) is still a valid handoff.