Session Handoff Skill

Create structured documents that enable seamless continuity across Claude sessions.

When to Use

• Ending a work session for the day
• Before taking a break mid-task
• Switching to a different project temporarily
• When you want to capture state for a future session
• Before a context reset you know is coming

Handoff Process

Step 1: Assess Session State

Quickly assess:

1. What phase are we in? (exploration, planning, implementation, debugging, review)
2. What’s the active task? (what we’re trying to accomplish)
3. How far along are we? (just started, mid-way, almost done)

Step 2: Ask What Matters

Ask the user:

“I’ll create a handoff document. Is there anything specific you want to make sure I capture? (Key decisions, code snippets, context about the problem, things you’ll forget, etc.)”

Step 3: Generate Handoff Document

Create a structured document:

# Session Handoff: [Brief Description]

**Date:** [YYYY-MM-DD]
**Project:** [project name/path]
**Session Duration:** [approximate]

## Current State

**Task:** [What we're working on]
**Phase:** [exploration/planning/implementation/debugging/review]
**Progress:** [where we are - percentage or milestone]

## What We Did

[2-3 sentence summary of the session's work]

## Decisions Made

- **[Decision]** — [Rationale]
- **[Decision]** — [Rationale]

## Code Changes

**Files modified:**

- `path/to/file.ts` — [what and why]
- `path/to/other.ts` — [what and why]

**Key code context:**
[Critical snippets or patterns to remember]

## Open Questions

- [ ] [Question needing resolution]
- [ ] [Question needing resolution]

## Blockers / Issues

- [Issue] — [current status]

## Context to Remember

[Important background, constraints, user preferences, domain knowledge - things that would take time to re-establish]

## Next Steps

1. [ ] [First thing to do next session]
2. [ ] [Second thing]
3. [ ] [Third thing]

## Files to Review on Resume

- `path/to/key/file.ts` — [why it matters]

Step 4: Write the File

Write to: .claude/handoffs/[YYYY-MM-DD]-[brief-description].md

Confirm location with user:

“I’ll save this to .claude/handoffs/[filename].md. Want a different location?”

What to Capture

Always Include

1. Decisions with reasoning — The “why” is often more valuable than the “what”
2. Code changes — File paths, what changed, the intent
3. Current progress — Where in the task we stopped
4. Next steps — Clear, actionable items to resume with
5. User context — Constraints, preferences, domain knowledge they shared

Include When Relevant

• Errors encountered — And how they were (or weren’t) resolved
• Dead ends — Approaches tried that didn’t work (saves re-exploration)
• Key files — Files to read to get back up to speed
• External dependencies — APIs, services, tools involved

Skip

• Verbose tool output (file listings, grep results)
• Intermediate reasoning that reached conclusions
• Repeated similar operations
• Information that’s obvious from the code

Format Guidelines

• Bullet points — Scannable over narrative
• File paths — src/foo.ts:42 not “that function”
• Checkboxes for actions — - [ ] for next steps and open questions
• Specifics — “Added retry logic to fetchUser()” not “made improvements”

Quality Check

Before saving, verify:

1. Could a fresh Claude pick up from this? — Enough context to continue?
2. Are decisions traceable? — Clear why things were decided?
3. Are next steps actionable? — Know exactly what to do first?
4. Is code work clear? — Know which files matter?

Using a Handoff Document

When starting a new session, the user can:

1. Share the handoff file at session start
2. Say “Resume from this handoff: [paste or path]”
3. Reference it with @ mention if supported

The handoff should let you hit the ground running without lengthy re-explanation.

Example Handoff

# Session Handoff: Auth System Implementation

**Date:** 2025-01-15
**Project:** /Users/robert/projects/my-api
**Session Duration:** ~2 hours

## Current State

**Task:** Implementing user authentication for the API
**Phase:** Implementation
**Progress:** ~60% - basic flow works, need refresh tokens

## What We Did

Built the core JWT authentication flow including token generation, validation middleware, and login/logout endpoints. Hit an issue with key rotation that we resolved by moving to config-based key paths.

## Decisions Made

- **JWT with RS256** — Stateless auth, works with distributed setup
- **Redis for refresh tokens** — Need revocation capability
- **15-min access token expiry** — Balance security/UX for mobile app

## Code Changes

**Files modified:**

- `src/auth/jwt.ts` — Token generation and validation logic
- `src/middleware/auth.ts` — Request authentication middleware
- `src/routes/auth.ts` — Login/logout endpoints
- `config/keys/` — RSA key pair storage

**Key code context:**
Token validation uses RS256. Keys loaded from `config/keys/` based on NODE_ENV.

## Open Questions

- [ ] Automatic vs opt-in refresh token rotation?
- [ ] Rate limit for login attempts? (User mentioned 10k DAU)

## Context to Remember

- Client is a mobile app - tokens need offline capability
- User has 10k daily active users - scale matters
- Using PostgreSQL for user storage
- User prefers explicit error messages over generic ones

## Next Steps

1. [ ] Implement `/auth/refresh` endpoint
2. [ ] Add rate limiting to `/auth/login`
3. [ ] Write tests for token expiry edge cases
4. [ ] Update API docs with auth flow

## Files to Review on Resume

- `src/auth/jwt.ts` — Core token logic
- `src/routes/auth.ts` — Current endpoint implementation

Key Reminders

• Ask what matters to the user before generating
• Decisions need reasoning — capture the “why”
• File paths anchor the work — always include them
• Next steps should be immediately actionable
• Better slightly longer and useful than short and vague