handoff

handoff — Pre-Clear Task Snapshot

Preserve the irreducible residual across /clear: what was in progress and what's still undecided. Hooks handle wipe-before-write and extract-after-write — your job is the task file.

Protocol

Step 1: Update memory

If durable learnings surfaced this session, capture them in auto-memory now. Skip if nothing durable surfaced — do not force.

Step 2: Decide, then write in parallel

First, decide both of the following without making any tool calls:

• Session title — a concise, specific title (≤ ~50 characters, Title Case, no surrounding quotes, no trailing punctuation) for the work done this session.
• Task snapshot — whether there's an active task with specific next steps, unmade decisions, or non-obvious context worth preserving; if so, draft the content using the template below.

Then, in the same turn, issue the writes and run the memory probe:

• Write ./.claude/autorename — sole line is the session title (always)
• Write ./.claude/handoff-task.md — only if there's an active task
• Run handoff-memory-probe (Bash) — deterministic gitlore-memory check

If there's no active task, omit handoff-task.md — the activation hook already finalized the session.

Step 3: Follow the probe

handoff-memory-probe prints nothing when there is no gitlore-managed memory to commit — finish normally. If it prints a directive, the directive itself states what to do; follow it exactly. The usual case asks you to summarize the pending memory changes in 1-3 sentences, get the user's approval (they may edit the summary), then run the commit command it names — never commit without that approval. The probe owns the decision — do not re-derive it or inspect the submodule yourself.

Task file template:

## Current task

<ONE SENTENCE describing what was in progress. Not a recap. What needs
to resume when a fresh agent picks up. Overflow belongs in memory or
git.>

## Open decisions

- <Unmade choice, phrased as a decision still to make, with enough
  context to decide.>

<Drop the section if there are no open decisions. No filler.>

Task file rules:

• No # heading — the read-time hook prepends one when it assembles the frame next session.
• No file paths or code unless a decision hinges on them. The read-time hook adds files-touched.
• No location other than ./.claude/handoff-task.md — the hook reads this exact path.

Anti-patterns

• A multi-sentence "Current task". One sentence; the rest goes to memory or git.
• Durable lessons in ## Open decisions. Those go to feedback memory.
• Extra sections in handoff-task.md. The template is fixed.

Additional resources

• references/design.md — design rationale: what the residual is and why the agent-authored task file plus mechanical extract split.