context-handoff¶
Bounded cross-session task state
Manually compile and resume verified task state with repository provenance. Validate identity and freshness before saved claims influence the next action.
context-handoff depends on verify, which transitively pulls
retrieval-core. Python 3 is required for its
standard-library validator.
Install¶
Manual-first workflow¶
Both commands accept an optional artifact path. Otherwise they use
CONTEXT_KIT_HANDOFF_PATH, then .context-kit/handoff.md under the repository
root. A relative override is also resolved from the repository root.
| Component | What it is |
|---|---|
context-handoff skill |
Portable compile/resume workflow and trust boundary. |
handoff-compiler subagent |
Read-only compiler that returns bounded structured Markdown to the caller; it never persists files. |
/write-handoff |
Gathers provenance, verifies important claims, writes the returned artifact, and validates it. |
/resume-handoff |
Validates structure and current identity/freshness, then reverifies stale claims before producing a resume brief. |
validate-handoff.py |
Deterministic stdlib validator with distinct invalid, mismatch, and stale statuses. |
The context-kit/handoff-v1 artifact is capped at 32 KiB, 300 lines, and 25
top-level items per required section. It records scope, verified facts,
decisions, changed/completed work, unresolved items, next steps, validation
state, and repository provenance.
Mismatch and staleness¶
- Repository identity, branch, or base-ref differences are mismatches. Resume rejects the artifact as authoritative task state.
- HEAD, merge-base, or clean/dirty-state differences are stale. Resume shows every difference and reverifies affected facts before use.
- A different worktree path is informational when identity anchors match.
- Malformed structure is invalid and must be repaired or regenerated.
Authority and archival
Manual /write-handoff and /resume-handoff remain authoritative. The
plugin has no lifecycle hooks, does not serialize hidden model state, and
never automatically ingests artifacts. When separately requested, the
memory plugin can archive a validated handoff as historical
evidence; resume must still freshness-check it.
Integration boundary¶
The continuity integration test checks matching, mismatched, and stale repository anchors through this real validator before local memory archival. The handoff remains authoritative task state after archival.
At a glance¶
| Category | continuity |
| Provides | skill, 2 commands, read-only subagent, stdlib Python validator |
| Dependencies | verify → retrieval-core |
| License | MIT |