handoff-prompt skill

A compact session handoff prompt for coding agents. Primarily packaged as a Claude Code skill, but the instructions inside SKILL.md are model- and platform-agnostic — see Using with other agents.

When your current session is getting long, run /handoff-prompt. The skill introspects the session and emits a single fenced block covering:

• Current task — what you were working on
• Progress so far — concrete files/lines changed
• Where we stopped — last action + reason
• Next steps — what to do next
• Key decisions & gotchas — non-obvious traps
• Context references — paths to CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / active plan (never inlined)
• Open questions — unresolved items

The output is hard-capped at ~300 tokens. Empty sections are omitted. Project context is referenced by path, not duplicated. Paste the block into a fresh session and keep going.

Why

/compact is generic and verbose. Most of what ends up in a compacted transcript is restatement you don't need. This skill emits only what a new agent actually needs to resume — everything else is either in your repo's CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md or in the plan/spec files it links to.

Install

Clone directly into your user-scope skills directory:

git clone https://github.com/sidorovanthon/handoff-prompt.git ~/.claude/skills/handoff-prompt

Or, if you only want the skill file:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/handoff-prompt
curl -o ~/.claude/skills/handoff-prompt/SKILL.md \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sidorovanthon/handoff-prompt/main/SKILL.md

Restart your Claude Code session — skills are loaded at startup.

Windows (PowerShell)

git clone https://github.com/sidorovanthon/handoff-prompt.git "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\skills\handoff-prompt"

Usage

In any Claude Code session, type:

/handoff-prompt

Claude will reply with a single code block. Copy it, open a fresh session, and paste.

That's it.

Update

cd ~/.claude/skills/handoff-prompt && git pull

Uninstall

rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/handoff-prompt

Using with other agents

The core is a set of instructions for an LLM coding agent — the Claude Code packaging (YAML frontmatter + ~/.claude/skills/ path + /handoff-prompt slash command) is just one way to deliver them. Any capable coding agent that accepts custom instructions, project rules, or a system prompt can produce the same handoff block.

Cursor

Save the body of SKILL.md as a project rule:

curl -o .cursorrules https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sidorovanthon/handoff-prompt/main/SKILL.md

Then ask Cursor: "Generate a handoff prompt following the handoff-prompt rules."

Aider

Load it as read-only context:

curl -o handoff-prompt.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sidorovanthon/handoff-prompt/main/SKILL.md
aider --read handoff-prompt.md

Then ask: "Generate a handoff prompt."

Copilot CLI / Gemini CLI

Both honor the Anthropic skill format. Place the file at the platform's skills location (check each platform's docs for the exact path) and invoke by name.

Codex CLI, Continue, or any other agent

Paste the body of SKILL.md into the agent's custom instructions, system prompt, or a project AGENTS.md / conventions file, then ask: "Give me a handoff prompt."

License

MIT