Handoff Files

Handoff Files

This page tells what the handoff of claudetto holds and where it writes the file. A user who reads a handoff file and a contributor who edits the handoff slice read it. See Handoff for how and when the handoff runs.

The Cold Handoff

The cold handoff has these parts:

• The task: the first line of the first user message, cut at 1,500 characters.
• The changed files: the files of the last Write, Edit, MultiEdit, and NotebookEdit calls, at most 20.
• The last words of the user: the last 3 user messages, each cut at 1,500 characters, in one block quote.
• The earlier handoff, when the session holds one.

The File

Case	Path
An openspec change has an open task	openspec/changes/<name>/handoff.md
No open change	.claudetto/handoffs/handoff-<UTC time>.md, such as handoff-20261016T120000Z.md

The open change is the first folder of openspec/changes/, by name, that has an open task in its tasks.md. The folder archive is not a change. With an open change, the file starts with the change name, the next open task, the done tasks, and the passed checks.

The Status Comes From Facts

The model text cannot add a done step:

• The hook takes each DONE mark off the text of the model.
• The done list is the list of the checked tasks of tasks.md.
• A passed check is a Bash call of just check, just test, just lab, just lint, just validate, the same with docker, or bun test, with a result and no error. A command with ;, &, a pipe, or a redirect does not count, and a background command does not count.

Ground Check

The prompt asks for each exact value in backticks. Before the handoff goes out, the hook looks for each value of 4 characters or more in the messages of the session. For each value that is not there, the handed message ends with a warning that tells the model to confirm the value with the smallest call that shows it. The hook also writes one debug log line for each such value. The check finds a value that is missing. It does not find a wrong fact in prose. See Ground.

Update of an Earlier Handoff

A handoff is a short note that claudetto writes in place of the summary of a compaction. This page shows what the note holds and where the file is. Handoff tells when and how it runs.

See Also

• Handoff
• Ground