/handoff

name: handoff
description: Checkpoint work for recovery — fires on "handoff", "wrap up", context pressure, a closed phase, or before a long external wait or irreversible gate. Part of the Agentsmith harness; writes durable state plus a paste-ready kickoff block so a fresh session loses nothing.
compatibility: Requires filesystem access and git; the fast path requires the cross-platform Agentsmith CLI.

Handoff — memory first, then the kickoff

A fresh session has **zero** memory of this one; the handoff note is the only bridge. Run this whenever work winds down — even if no one asked (core/50).

When this fires

"handoff" / "wrap up" / "let's stop here" / context pressure / a closed phase / before a long external wait, merge, release, deployment, or other irreversible external gate.

Runtime neutrality

This workflow is identical in every client. Never infer the active agent from this skill's install path: portable canonical content may be copied into a required client adapter such as `.claude/skills`. Use “fresh chat” rather than a runtime-specific reset command so the note remains portable.

Fast path — if the Agentsmith CLI is available

1. Run `agentsmith handoff [item-id]` — use `.agentsmith/agentsmith` on macOS/Linux or `.agentsmith\\agentsmith.cmd` on Windows when the command is not on PATH. It pre-fills branch/HEAD/dirty count and scaffolds `.harness/handoffs/handoff-<stamp>.md` with the standard sections. 2. Fill the scaffolded sections (below), then emit the kickoff block as your final message.

Fallback — no CLI

1. **Safe state FIRST** (core/50 step 1): commit or stash so nothing half-edited is lost. Never hand off a dirty tree silently. 2. Write `.harness/handoffs/handoff-<stamp>.md` with these sections:

• **Recovery checkpoint** — exact objective; repository/worktree; protected-state hashes;

branch/commit and external identifiers; completed/skipped verification; active operation; next read-only recovery command; remaining authorized writes; stop conditions.

• **What shipped this session** — with commit SHAs / PR links.
• **What is still pending.**
• **Deviations / decisions made** (so they're not re-litigated).
• **Exact next step** — the single first action for the next session.
• **Gotchas** a fresh session would otherwise re-derive.

3. Emit a fenced **"Kickoff prompt for a fresh chat"** block: 3–6 sentences of self-contained prose (not bullets — they paste it straight in) covering the item id, branch + HEAD, what's done, the single next step, decisions already made, and the handoff note path.

Report

Name the handoff file, then end your message with the fenced kickoff block. If you notice mid-wrap that you haven't written the note yet, stop and write it before continuing.