Handoff

---
name: handoff
description: Ends a chemistry-dev work session by verifying that memory/notes are up to date and writing a handoff note, so the next session needs no hand-written prompt. Use when the user wants to wrap up, clear, or "start a new session", or asks "is everything stored in memory?" / "give me a prompt for the next session". Not for resuming at the start of a session (use kickoff).
---

# Session handoff

Produce a durable handoff so the next session can start with your project's `kickoff`
skill (or a bare "continue") instead of a hand-written multi-KB prompt.

Wire this up: point step 4's file at wherever your project keeps its handoff note (e.g.
`HANDOFF.md`, a "resume" doc) and step 2 at wherever it keeps durable cross-session
memory (a memory file, a wiki page, a project-notes doc).

## Steps

1. **Commit check.** `git status --short` — everything intended for this session is
   committed (explicit paths — avoid a blanket "add everything" if your project's tree
   carries generated/scratch files it doesn't want swept in). If work is half-done,
   commit a clearly-labeled WIP or note it in step 4's "in flight."
2. **Memory/notes check.** Update whatever durable "start here" note covers the current
   milestone with what shipped (commits, any baseline movement, lessons learned). New
   detail goes in that note and the handoff note; if your project keeps a top-level
   index file, it should stay an index that points at the detail, not carry the detail
   itself.

   ⚠ **Do not trim a durable memory/notes file to hit a byte or length target.** Adding
   to it is fine; compressing existing entries to save space is not, unless an entry is
   simply wrong or superseded. A compression pass that squeezes old entries into
   one-liners can truncate hard-won detail mid-sentence — and if that file lives outside
   version control, the loss is not recoverable from git. Only ever *rewrite* an entry
   when it is wrong or superseded, never merely long. Moving genuinely new bulk into a
   separate topic note (rather than inlining everything into one file) is fine — that's
   composition, not trimming.

3. **Capture every session lesson into both memory layers.** A lesson = anything the next
   session must not re-learn: a refuted premise, a spy that changed a plan, a corpus error,
   a working-style correction, a measured ceiling. Write each into **(a)** its durable note,
   with **Why** + **How to apply**, and **(b)** your project's semantic memory tool, if it
   has one, so `kickoff`'s searchable layer has it. Notes are the source of truth; never
   leave one only in a task report or gitignored ledger. Add to the existing note on a
   topic rather than creating a duplicate. Then check: list this session's commits (`git log`
   since the last handoff) and lessons; each must appear in a note. Add what is missing.
4. **Write your project's handoff note** (overwrite; keep it short, roughly ≤30 lines)
   from this template. Keep these field names exactly; `kickoff` and its drift check read them.

   ```markdown
   # Next session — written <UTC date>, by session handoff
   - Milestone/phase: <e.g. current phase name>
   - Last commit: <hash> "<subject>" (last work commit; this note's own commit follows it;
     branch, pushed: yes/no)
   - Baseline: <N> (whatever your project's headline gate/benchmark number is, and
     whether it currently passes)
   - NEXT task: <one paragraph — the single thing to start on>
   - Read first: <durable-memory note(s), plan/design docs, and where your standing
     working-style rules live, with paths>
   - In flight / hazards: <uncommitted files, pending evals, fresh lessons>
   ```
5. **Commit** the handoff note (explicit path). If `git status --short` still lists it,
   the commit did not land: fix that and commit again before telling the user.
6. **Tell the user** in a few lines: which notes you updated, the handoff note's path
   and commit, and that the next session can start with `kickoff` or "continue" with no
   hand-written prompt. Write a long starter prompt only if the user still asks for one.