Handover Document Creator

Write (or pick up) a session handover: a point-in-time snapshot of what happened and what remains outstanding, filed under .context/handovers/ so a different agent or a future session of the same agent can resume the work cold, without needing this conversation's context.

When to use

• The session is ending (context limit approaching, user stepping away, /clear about to happen) and meaningful work is still in progress
• The user explicitly asks for a handover, a "what's outstanding" summary for someone else, or to "hand this off"
• Work is moving between worktrees, branches, or agents (e.g. a wave-based parallel implementation, or handing a spike off to a colleague's session)

When not to use

• The session's work is fully complete and nothing is outstanding: no handover is needed, the git history and any .context/follow-ups/ entries already filed are sufficient
• A single outstanding item with no broader session context: file it as a .context/follow-ups/ entry via the create-context-file skill instead (see Relationship to other typologies below) rather than writing a whole handover for one item
• Journal entries, tool assessments, or plan documents already cover the need: don't duplicate this skill's job into those, or vice versa

Directory and naming convention

.context/handovers/
  YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md

One dated file per handover, following the same YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md convention as .context/follow-ups/ and .context/plans/. A handover is a snapshot, not a living document: a second handover on the same topic is a new dated file with supersedes set, never an in-place edit of the first. Why, and how this differs from tool-review-assessment's in-place convention: references/typology-and-lifecycle.md.

Frontmatter (required)

---
title: "TICKET-123 example-service dev rollout - mid-migration"
type: handover
date: 2026-09-08 # ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD), must match the filename's date segment
branch: feat/ticket-123-example-service-dev
status: active # active | done | superseded
---

Required fields: title, type (fixed to handover), date, branch, status. Optional fields (session_id, author, tags, related, supersedes) and a full worked example are in references/document-structure.md.

Required document structure

A handover has nine sections in a fixed order: frontmatter, an # Handover: title, ## Session Summary, ## Completed, ## Outstanding, ## Current State, ## Next Steps, an optional ## Gotchas / Context, and ## References. The two sections most often written wrong:

• ## Completed needs evidence per item (commit SHA, file path, test count, PR/MR link), not a narration of what was attempted. "Ran the tests" is not evidence; "bun test: 42 pass, 0 fail" is.
• ## Outstanding links to an existing .context/follow-ups/ entry instead of re-describing it, and flags plainly when an item probably needs a follow-up that doesn't exist yet.

Full section-by-section detail (what each one must contain, and why): references/document-structure.md.

Workflow: writing a handover

1. Gather the facts before writing. Run git status, git log -1, git stash list (never bare git stash/git stash pop when several worktrees share one stash stack), and list any .context/follow-ups/ entries filed this session.
2. Write .context/handovers/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md following the structure above. Prefer a short, specific slug over a generic one (ticket-123-example-service-dev-migration, not handover or session-end).
3. Cross-link, don't duplicate. If outstanding work already has a .context/follow-ups/ entry or a .context/plans/ document, link to it from ## Outstanding / ## References rather than re-describing it in full.
4. Run the validator before considering the handover done: bash <skill-dir>/scripts/validate-handover.sh .context/handovers/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md. Fix anything it flags.
5. Commit it with the outstanding work (or on its own if the handover is the only change left): docs(handover): <short description>.

Workflow: picking up a handover

1. Read the handover file in full before touching any code - don't skim just ## Next Steps; ## Gotchas / Context and ## Current State often carry the details that prevent repeating a dead end.
2. Verify ## Current State still matches reality (git status, git log -1) before acting on it - time may have passed since it was written, or someone else may already have progressed the branch.
3. Do the outstanding work.
4. Flip status to done in the same change that resolves the outstanding work - never delete the file, matching the create-context-file follow-up lifecycle (status: active until actioned, then done). If only some outstanding items were resolved, leave status: active and update ## Outstanding to reflect what remains, rather than marking the whole handover done prematurely.
5. Re-run the validator to confirm the frontmatter edit didn't break the schema.

Relationship to other typologies

.context/handovers/ is a distinct, standalone typology from .context/follow-ups/, .context/plans/, and .context/findings/, and is tracked in the auto-generated .context/index.yaml under its own handovers: section (the context-index skill maps type: handover to it). An active handover is outstanding work, so any tool that reads the index for what is outstanding needs to see it. A handover is broader than a single follow-up item: it is the whole session's end state. Full explanation of the boundary, and why a handover is a snapshot rather than an in-place-edited document (unlike tool-review-assessment): references/typology-and-lifecycle.md.

Assets

• assets/templates/handover.yaml - the required section list and frontmatter fields, in the same YAML-template style the journal-entry-creator skill uses for its own templates.
• assets/schemas/handover-frontmatter.schema.json - the JSON Schema every handover's frontmatter must satisfy.
• scripts/validate-handover.sh - run against a single handover file or the whole .context/handovers/ directory: bash <skill-dir>/scripts/validate-handover.sh .context/handovers/. Checks filename shape, that the frontmatter date matches the filename's date segment, required frontmatter fields (title, type: handover, date, branch, status), and that all required sections are present.

Mindset

• Evidence beats self-report: a "Completed" item without a commit SHA, test count, or file path is a claim, not a record
• Write for a reader who was not in this conversation and never will be: no unexplained shorthand, no "as discussed above"
• Outstanding work is either linked to an existing .context/follow-ups/ entry or flagged as needing one - never left to exist only inside prose that will be someone's second read, not their first

Anti-Patterns

NEVER write a handover that only lists what was attempted, with no evidence of what actually landed. WHY: a reader picking this up needs to know what is safe to build on, not just what was tried. BAD: "Worked on the migration, made some progress." GOOD: "Migrated 3 of 5 tables (commit a1b2c3d); bun test db/: 12 pass, 0 fail; remaining 2 tables blocked on schema decision, see Outstanding."

NEVER edit an existing handover in place to reflect a second session's progress. WHY: unlike a tool assessment, a handover is a snapshot of one session's end state; silently rewriting it loses the audit trail of what the first session actually left behind. BAD: editing 2026-09-01-ticket-123-handover.md directly when a second session continues the work. GOOD: writing 2026-09-03-ticket-123-handover.md with supersedes: .context/handovers/2026-09-01-ticket-123-handover.md.

NEVER duplicate a full .context/follow-ups/ entry's description inside ## Outstanding instead of linking it. WHY: two descriptions of the same open item drift apart over time and nobody knows which is current. BAD: re-explaining a follow-up's whole context inline. GOOD: "See .context/follow-ups/2026-09-08-x.md - status unchanged since filing."

NEVER use a bare git stash or git stash pop while gathering Current State facts. WHY: the stash stack is shared by every worktree of a repository; a bare pop can steal another session's in-progress work. BAD: git stash / git stash pop. GOOD: git stash list, and if something must be set aside, git stash push -u -m "<unique-tag>" with the SHA captured immediately.

References