Handoff

What it does

When your agent uses it

• — use this skill when: - User says handoff
• Session transfer - User asks how do I pick this up later - User wants to pass this to another agent

Example prompts

• “handoff”
• “hand off”
• “hand-off”
• “/handoff”

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

1. 1Gather State
2. 2Synthesize Context from the Session
3. 3Generate the Handoff Prompt

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 79d019b. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • git

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use git, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Handoff loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 153 tokens; SKILL.md has 464 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~153

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.4k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from espennilsen/pi at commit 79d019b, republished under its MIT licence (© espennilsen). 464 words, ~1,359 tokens.

name

handoff

description

Generate a self-contained handoff prompt that lets the user continue work in a fresh coding agent session with empty context. The prompt captures everything a new agent needs: project, goal, progress, decisions, current state, and remaining work. **Triggers — use this skill when:** - User says "handoff", "hand off", "hand-off" - User asks to "generate a continuation prompt" - User says "give me a prompt to continue this" - User asks to "wrap up for a new session" - User says "context transfer", "session transfer" - User asks "how do I pick this up later" - User wants to "pass this to another agent"

# Project identity
basename $(pwd)
git remote -v 2>/dev/null | head -2

# Branch and recent work
git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null
git log --oneline -10 2>/dev/null

# Uncommitted changes (critical for handoff)
git status --short 2>/dev/null
git diff --stat 2>/dev/null

# Stashed work
git stash list 2>/dev/null

# Any running processes or dev servers the user should know about
# (mention if relevant to the task)

```
Project: <name> — <one-line description>
Path: <absolute path to project root>
Branch: <current branch>

## Goal

<What the user is trying to accomplish — the big picture.>

## Context

<Brief project context the new agent needs. Tech stack, relevant architecture,
anything non-obvious about the codebase.>

## What's Been Done

- <Completed item 1 — be specific: files changed, commits made>
- <Completed item 2>
- ...

## Current State

<What state is the codebase in right now? Clean? Dirty files? Failing tests?
Mention uncommitted changes explicitly — the new agent should not accidentally
discard or duplicate work.>

Dirty files:
- <path/to/file — what was changed and why>
- ...

## What's Left

1. <Next concrete step — this is what the new agent should do first>
2. <Subsequent step>
3. ...

## Key Decisions

- <Decision 1: what was chosen and why>
- <Decision 2>

## Key Files

- `<path>` — <why this file matters for the current task>
- `<path>` — <description>

## Gotchas

- <Anything surprising, non-obvious, or easy to get wrong>
```

© espennilsen, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/handoff of espennilsen/pi.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 79d019b