Claude Handoff — Agent Skill by Matt Pocock

From the author

Hand the current conversation off to a fresh background agent that picks up the work immediately.

— the description by Matt Pocock

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

The claude-handoff skill enables users to transition ongoing tasks to a fresh background agent. It generates a concise summary of the current conversation, including relevant references to existing artifacts and suggested skills, and initializes a new background process. This allows users to offload complex or long-running tasks to a dedicated agent while maintaining context and continuity.

What it does

Summarizes the current conversation state for a new agent.
References existing project artifacts like specs, plans, and diffs instead of duplicating content.
Includes a suggested skills section to guide the next agent's capabilities.
Redacts sensitive information like API keys and passwords from the summary.
Launches a new background agent seeded with the generated summary.
Assigns a descriptive name to the new agent for easy management.

When to use it

When you need to offload a specific task to a background process to free up your current session.
When a conversation has become too complex and requires a fresh, focused agent to continue.
When you want to run multiple parallel tasks managed by different agents.

Advantages

Maintains continuity by providing the new agent with a structured context summary.
Prevents context bloat by referencing external files rather than duplicating data.
Improves organization by allowing users to name and track background agents.
Ensures security by mandating the redaction of sensitive information.

Usage examples

“Hand off this task to a new agent for final code review.”: The skill generates a summary focused on the code review task, launches a new background agent named 'Code Review', and provides the agent with the necessary context.
“Start a new session for drafting the project documentation.”: The skill summarizes the current progress, suggests relevant documentation skills, and initializes a background agent dedicated to writing the project docs.

Install

Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/mattpocock/claude-handoff/download

Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip claude-handoff.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by Matt Pocock

Write a handoff summary of the current conversation so a fresh agent can continue the work. Save it to the temporary directory of the user's OS, then launch a background agent seeded with it as its prompt: claude --bg --name "<descriptive name>" -- "$(cat <summary file>)". Passing the file keeps the shell from running backticks or expanding $ in the summary. It starts in the current working directory and returns immediately; the user manages it with claude agents.

Always pass -n/--name with a descriptive name (e.g. --name "Fix login bug"); it sets the display name shown in the job list, session picker, and terminal title.

Include a "suggested skills" section in the summary, 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, since the summary becomes the agent's prompt.

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

Files

ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer869 B
LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer1.0 KiB
SKILL.md1.4 KiB
agents/openai.yaml141 B

Requirements and compatibility

Written for: Claude Code

Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Needs: Claude Code frontmatter, Needs an API key

Security

No issues found by our static scan· No issues found

A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.

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