Handoff

Give a fresh session enough verified context to take the next useful action without the previous conversation. Create a handoff when the user requests a transfer; ordinary continuation in the current context needs no separate document.

For an explicitly requested human recipient, load references/human-handoff.md. Use the shared preparation below, then adapt the document and format through that reference.

Prepare the transfer

Identify the continuation. Capture the current objective, completion condition, latest user decisions, and the requested next action. Include relevant constraints and active operating modes, not every earlier instruction. If the next session has a narrower assignment, make that assignment explicit.
Inspect the state being handed over. Use the existing checkpoint and primary artifacts. For repository work, inspect the working directory, branch/revision, status, and relevant diff. Distinguish committed work, current uncommitted edits, and unrelated changes; label ownership only when known. For analysis, identify the relevant target, sample, build, or dataset. Never clean, reset, commit, or finish unrelated work merely to prepare the handoff.
Separate progress from evidence. State what is done, in progress, blocked, or unverified. Tie important claims to evidence and its revision, conditions, or observation time. A passing test before a later edit is historical evidence, not a pass for the current tree. Use cheap current checks where useful; do not rerun a large investigation just to produce a fresher summary. Carry material failed approaches and what would justify retrying them.
Account for work in flight. When a command, worker, or remote job is unfinished, record its identity, last observed status, command and working directory, result/log location, completion signal, and supported way to inspect or resume it. State whether it can survive the session. Do not assume tool handles, PIDs, credentials, or interactive sessions transfer; mark unknown survival explicitly. Use loop-control-and-pivots if the running job needs lifecycle handling before transfer.
Write the smallest usable packet. Include a short account of the current state and a concrete next action with the expected observation and follow-up. Link canonical notes, decisions, code, evidence, and prior attempts; do not paste the whole transcript or duplicate the task's brain. Preserve enough essential context to act when a secondary pointer is unavailable. A required missing artifact is a named dependency, not an invitation to guess.

Use an existing task record as the canonical entry point when available; reconcile it with current artifacts and state. The 1337 operational brain manages ongoing cyber task knowledge; handoff carries the entry point and the state needed to cross sessions. For cross-project or managed persistent memory, use memory-hygiene.

Agent document shape

Adapt the sections to the task; omit empty or irrelevant fields. Keep the first action easy to find.