---
id: "handoff-summary"
title: "Handoff summary between sessions"
creator: null
url: "https://skillissue.dev/patterns/handoff-summary.html"
level: null
category: "Context"
models: null
source_date: null
date_added: null
---

# Handoff summary between sessions

End long sessions with a compact state file, and start the next session from it instead of the full history.

## Problem


Long sessions accumulate noise: dead ends, superseded decisions, large tool outputs. Context windows are finite, and even before they fill up, important details get buried. Starting fresh loses everything unless you capture it.


## Pattern


Before ending (or when a session gets long), ask the agent to write a handoff file with the current state: what is done, what is in progress, decisions made and why, open problems, and the next concrete step. Review it, fix anything wrong, then start a new session with the rules file, the original brief and the handoff, nothing else.

The handoff should be written for a capable colleague who has never seen the conversation.


## Template


```
Write HANDOFF.md for someone continuing this work with no access to this conversation.
Be concrete and brief. Use these sections:

## Goal
<the task, in one or two sentences>

## Done
- <completed item> (verified by: <command/check>)

## In progress
- <item> – current state, what's left

## Decisions
- <decision> – because <reason>. Rejected: <alternative> because <reason>.

## Known problems
- <bug / failing test / open question>

## Next step
<The single next action, specific enough to start immediately.>

## Pointers
- Key files: <paths>
- Commands: <how to run/test>

Do not include dead ends unless they explain a decision.
```


## When not to use it


- Short tasks that finish within one session.
- If you will not review the handoff. An unchecked summary can carry a wrong assumption forward as fact.