handoff▌
steveyegge/beads · updated Apr 8, 2026
Hand off your current session to a fresh Claude instance while preserving work context.
Handoff - Session Cycling for Gas Town Agents
Hand off your current session to a fresh Claude instance while preserving work context.
When to Use
- Context getting full (approaching token limit)
- Finished a logical chunk of work
- Need a fresh perspective on a problem
- Human requests session cycling
Usage
/handoff [optional message]
How It Works
- If you provide a message, it's sent as handoff mail to yourself
gt handoffrespawns your session with a fresh Claude- New session auto-primes via SessionStart hook
- Work continues from your hook (pinned molecule persists)
Examples
# Simple handoff (molecule persists, fresh context)
/handoff
# Handoff with context notes
/handoff "Found the bug in token refresh - check line 145 in auth.go first"
What Persists
- Hooked molecule: Your work assignment stays on your hook
- Beads state: All issues, dependencies, progress
- Git state: Commits, branches, staged changes
What Resets
- Conversation context: Fresh Claude instance
- TodoWrite items: Ephemeral, session-scoped
- In-memory state: Any uncommitted analysis
Implementation
When invoked, execute:
-
If user provided a message, send handoff mail:
gt mail send <your-address> -s "HANDOFF: Session cycling" -m "<message>" -
Run the handoff command:
gt handoff
The new session will find your handoff mail and hooked work automatically.
Discussion
Product Hunt–style comments (not star reviews)- No comments yet — start the thread.
Ratings
4.6★★★★★46 reviews- ★★★★★Shikha Mishra· Dec 28, 2024
Keeps context tight: handoff is the kind of skill you can hand to a new teammate without a long onboarding doc.
- ★★★★★Kwame Wang· Dec 28, 2024
handoff reduced setup friction for our internal harness; good balance of opinion and flexibility.
- ★★★★★Aarav Torres· Dec 16, 2024
handoff has been reliable in day-to-day use. Documentation quality is above average for community skills.
- ★★★★★Ganesh Mohane· Dec 4, 2024
handoff reduced setup friction for our internal harness; good balance of opinion and flexibility.
- ★★★★★Henry Perez· Dec 4, 2024
We added handoff from the explainx registry; install was straightforward and the SKILL.md answered most questions upfront.
- ★★★★★Sakshi Patil· Nov 23, 2024
I recommend handoff for anyone iterating fast on agent tooling; clear intent and a small, reviewable surface area.
- ★★★★★Mia Tandon· Nov 23, 2024
Solid pick for teams standardizing on skills: handoff is focused, and the summary matches what you get after install.
- ★★★★★Hana Malhotra· Nov 19, 2024
I recommend handoff for anyone iterating fast on agent tooling; clear intent and a small, reviewable surface area.
- ★★★★★Mia Menon· Nov 7, 2024
handoff fits our agent workflows well — practical, well scoped, and easy to wire into existing repos.
- ★★★★★Mia Verma· Oct 26, 2024
We added handoff from the explainx registry; install was straightforward and the SKILL.md answered most questions upfront.
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