handofflisted

# Handoff Long threads die two deaths: the context window fills up, or the human walks away for a week. Either way, restarting from nothing costs hours of re-explaining, and worse, silently loses decisions, so the next session relitigates settled questions and repeats rejected approaches. A good handoff document is the difference between "continue" and "start over". The core insight: a handoff is a **state snapshot, not a story**. The next reader does not need to know what happened in what order; they need to know where things stand, what's been ruled out, and what's next. The number one failure mode of conversation summaries is chronological narration ("First we discussed X, then we explored Y..."), which buries the actionable state under a play-by-play nobody needs. ## Step 1: Identify the recipient The document differs by who receives it. Infer from context or ask one question: - **New AI session** (most common): optimized for pasting into a fresh chat. Includes working preferences, exact constraints, and ends with a paste-ready opening prompt. - **Human colleague**: more background on why the work exists, less instruction-style framing, no opening prompt. - **Future self**: leans on reminders of intent ("you chose X because the client hated Y") since they'll half-remember everything. ## Step 2: Mine the conversation for what actually transfers Re-read the whole thread and extract, in priority order: 1. **Decisions and their reasons.** Not just "we chose Po