Handoff
Transferring agent context from one session to another. The carry mechanism varies, a written handoff artifact, an in-memory summary (compaction), and others. Distinct from clearing (no transfer at all). Reasons vary: switching roles (planner → implementer), kicking off an AFK run, fanning out to parallel sessions, or freeing up context window room.
The receiving session starts with zero context, the model is stateless, and nothing from the old session is visible to the new one. Whatever the next session needs has to be carried explicitly; everything else is gone. “No return path” is the constraint that shapes the carry: the new session can’t ask the old one what it meant, so the carried material has to stand on its own.
| Mechanism | Form | Properties |
|---|---|---|
| Handoff artifact | File in the environment | You can read and correct it before anything depends on it; reusable across many sessions |
| Compaction | Summary in the context window | Automatic and cheap; harder to inspect; feeds one successor |
The visible failure of a bad handoff is relitigation: the new session re-opens decisions the old one had settled, because the carry recorded what was decided but not why. Judge a handoff by what a session with zero context could do with it.
Usage:
“Planning session is getting heavy, should I just keep going?”
“Do a handoff. Write the decisions to a doc, clear, start the implementation in a fresh session reading from it.”
Related skills in agy-skills
- handoff: Compacts the current session into a portable markdown document.
- ask-fred: Guides when to perform a handoff vs continuing in the current session.
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