Skills mattpocock skills Engineering workflow

handoff

Use it when:: The work has to move to another tool, another folder, a colleague or a side session.
It does:: Summarizes the conversation into one Markdown file a fresh agent can continue from.
You get:: A handoff file in your system's temp folder, ending with the skills the next agent should load.
Unlike claude-handoff:: That one also starts a background Claude Code agent on the summary; this one only writes the file, and you start the next session.
Runs:: Only when you call it, optionally with what the next session is for.

Skill 8 of 24 in the Engineering workflow bundle, after research and before prototype.

TL;DR

The agent writes up the current conversation so another agent can pick up the work. The file goes to the OS temp folder ($TMPDIR or /tmp, %TEMP% on Windows), not your project. It links to specs, plans, ADRs, issues, commits and diffs by path or URL instead of copying them, strips API keys, passwords and personal information, and lists the skills the next agent should load. If you say what the next session will focus on, the summary is tailored to it. To carry on in the same tool and folder, the bundle suggests compacting the conversation instead.

Summarizes the skill at 5beb35b.

npx skills add https://github.com/mattpocock/skills --skill handoff

skills.sh page Source on GitHub All skills from mattpocock/skills

Total Downloads: 1,113,963 on skills.sh, Nov 9, 2026
Repo stars: 318,714 mattpocock/skills
First seen: May 6, 2026 on skills.sh

Weekly Downloads

32.4K

-23% over the 8 weeks to Nov 9

Weekly values

Week to	Installs
Sep 21	41,765
Sep 28	37,953
Oct 5	38,422
Oct 12	54,020
Oct 19	43,967
Oct 26	39,160
Nov 2	35,344
Nov 9	32,356

Category	category:planning category:software-engineering Make the agent question you and write the plan down before it writes code. Everything for building software: planning, coding, debugging, design, frameworks, cloud, agents and skills.
Type	type:command A one-shot action you invoke by name, such as turning the conversation into a PRD.
Effect	effect:local Its own steps create or change files, git state or local tools.
Needs	needs:none Instructions only. Works in any agent that supports skills.
Publisher	by:community Everyone else. Unverified vendor claims default to community.
Topics	handoff

SKILL.md

From mattpocock/skills at 5beb35b. Checked daily, last changed Oct 20, 2026.

Frontmatter

name: handoff
description: Compact the current conversation into a handoff document for another agent to pick up.
argument-hint: "What will the next session be used for?"
disable-model-invocation: true

Write a handoff document summarising the current conversation so a fresh agent can continue the work. Save to the temporary directory of the user's OS ($TMPDIR, else /tmp; %TEMP% on Windows) - not the current workspace.

Include a "suggested skills" section in the document, naming which skills the next agent should call the Skill tool for.

Do not duplicate content already captured in other artifacts (specs, plans, ADRs, issues, commits, diffs). Reference them by path or URL instead.

Redact any sensitive information, such as API keys, passwords, or personally identifiable information.

If the user passed arguments, treat them as a description of what the next session will focus on and tailor the doc accordingly.