handofflisted

# Handoff -- The Baton Pass A handoff is the session squeezed to its resumable core: what a fresh agent needs to continue, and nothing it can get from the repo itself. Two moves: WRITE when leaving, RESUME when arriving. The one-line test: a fresh agent reads HANDOFF.md, runs its Verify block, and is productively working within five minutes -- without scrolling any transcript. A handoff is a claim about reality, not reality. The repo may have moved since the doc was written, so every packet carries the evidence (branch, commit, dirty count, test results) that lets the next agent check it. When doc and repo disagree, the repo wins. ## Gate Size the pass before writing: | Situation | Do | |---|---| | Work committed, next step obvious from git log | No doc -- say so, point at the log | | Clean tree, one known next step | Mini packet: Goal, Next, Verify only | | Work in flight -- dirty tree, half-done plan, failing tests, open decision | Full packet | | A decision worth keeping forever just got made | That part goes to the devlog entry; the handoff references it | The most valuable output is often "no doc needed": a handoff that restates git log is noise the next agent has to read past. ## WRITE ### 1. Evidence first Look, don't remember. Before writing a word: ```bash git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD && git rev-parse --short HEAD git status --porcelain # dirty files, count them git log --oneline -5 # recent motion ``` Then whatever proves working state