Handoffs

Most sessions stay short. You ask, the colleague does the work, you’re done. But some jobs are big — a multi-step research project, a long report, a plan with many moving parts. After a few hours of back-and-forth, the colleague has so much to remember that earlier details start to blur. The fix is a simple rhythm: write a handoff, run /compact, keep going. Same session the whole way through.

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The pattern

1. Finish a large chunk of work.
2. Ask the colleague to create a handoff document — a short note that captures where you are, what’s done, and what’s next.
3. Run /compact. The session keeps going, but the older back-and-forth is summarised so there’s room to think.
4. Tell the colleague to continue from the handoff.

The handoff lives on the hard disk, so it survives the compact and you can read it yourself.

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When to use it

For anything that has more than three or four large sub-tasks. A good flow:

• Start with a plan document. List the sub-tasks.
• Work through one sub-task at a time.
• After each one, write a handoff and run /compact.
• Pick up the next sub-task from the handoff.

That keeps the colleague sharp from the first sub-task to the last.

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What to put in a handoff

Tell the colleague what you want captured. A useful handoff usually has:

• The overall goal.
• What’s complete.
• What’s next.
• Any decisions or preferences that came up along the way.

Create a handoff document. Include the goal, what’s done, what’s left, and any decisions we made. Save it to the hard disk.

Then, after /compact:

Read the handoff and continue from where we left off.

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Skills you can add to make this easy

You don’t have to type those instructions every time. Two ready-made skills live in the open eluu-skills repo and turn the rhythm into one-word slash commands.

/create-handoff — eluu-skills/create-handoff. Writes a structured handoff document to the hard disk: goal, plan status, what’s done, what’s next, decisions, open questions. Run before /compact.

/resume-handoff — eluu-skills/resume-handoff. Reads the most recent handoff, summarises where you are in four lines, and waits for your confirmation before continuing.

Add them by asking your colleague directly:

Add the create-handoff and resume-handoff skills from https://github.com/Ive-Everywhere/eluu-skills to yourself.

The full rhythm then becomes: /create-plan (built in) → work a sub-task → /create-handoff → /compact → /resume-handoff → next sub-task. Repeat to the end.

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Handoff vs new session

Both give you a clean working space, but they’re different:

• Handoff with /compact — same session, same files, same history (summarised). Best for staying on one big job.
• New session — a fresh start with no prior context. Best when you’re moving to unrelated work.

For long-running work, stay in one session and use handoffs.

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Where to next