---
name: chat-handoff
description: Use when the user says handoff, wrap up, save this chat, or next chat, or when the conversation has grown long. Writes the chat's state to HANDOFF.md and a start prompt for the next chat.
---

Close this chat so the next one starts where this one stops, without carrying the whole history.

Do three things, in this order. Be specific. Use the user's own words wherever they decided something.

1. Write the HANDOFF. Keep it under 500 words. Sections, in this order, skip a section only if it is empty:
   - Goal: one sentence.
   - Decisions: each one the user made, quoted word for word, with the date if known and the reason in a few words.
   - Facts and numbers: each with where it came from (file, command, link). Anything with no source is marked UNVERIFIED.
   - Files and links: every file this chat created or changed, with its full path or link.
   - Rejected: what was tried or refused, and why. This stops the next chat from suggesting it again.
   - Unfinished: what is not done, and the exact next step.
   - How the user likes to work: language, tone, length, anything they corrected.
   Quote what you can see; if a message is cut off, quote the visible part and mark it (cut). A claim from a helper or tool is a claim, not a fact: name who made it. If you must cut for length, cut file detail first and keep decisions, the rejected list and the next step. Never invent. If you do not know, write UNKNOWN. Do not paste raw tool output or long file contents; name the file instead.

2. Save it.
   - If you can write files (Claude Code): write it to HANDOFF.md in the current project folder. If the file exists, replace its "Current state" section and keep the rest.
   - If you cannot (claude.ai): show it as one block the user can copy, and say: "Save this in your Project's knowledge, or paste it as the first message of the next chat."

3. Write the start prompt for the next chat, in one code block the user can copy. It must work with nothing else in context. Format:
   - One line with the goal.
   - "Read HANDOFF.md first" with its full path (Claude Code) or the HANDOFF text itself (claude.ai).
   - "Do not re-open the decisions listed. Start with: <the exact next step>."
   - "Ask me before doing anything outside that step."

Then tell the user in one line: the new chat is ready, they can close this one.