# Cw Handoff

Use when writing a Codewhale takeover prompt, continuation note, or end-of-session...

- Repository: https://github.com/codewhale-hq/Codewhale (41164 stars)
- Category: AI and agents
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-11-01
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add codewhale-hq/Codewhale --skill cw-handoff -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add codewhale-hq/Codewhale --skill cw-handoff -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add codewhale-hq/Codewhale --skill cw-handoff -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add codewhale-hq/Codewhale --skill cw-handoff -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Use when writing a Codewhale takeover prompt, continuation note, or end-of-session summary for another agent or a later session: a paste-ready handoff grounded in live state, with done/suspected/blocked kept separate.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# cw-handoff

A handoff is read by an agent with none of your context and every incentive to
believe you. That makes an optimistic handoff worse than no handoff: it converts
your guesses into the next session's premises. Write it so the reader can
re-derive the state instead of trusting the prose.

Stage 6 of the loop, and the one that makes the loop a loop: the next session
starts at [cw-orient](../cw-orient/SKILL.md) with what you leave here.

## When to use

- Ending a session with work in flight.
- Asked for "a prompt for another agent", takeover instructions, a
  continuation note, or a summary of current state for async work.
- Handing work to a different model, a fleet worker, or a remote session.

## Workflow

1. **Write it as a prompt the next agent can paste directly.** Not a report
   about the work, instructions for continuing it.

2. **Open with the refresh block, not with your summary.** The first thing the
   reader should do is verify you:
   ```bash
   cd <repo path>
   git status --short --branch && git branch --show-current
   git log --oneline --decorate -20
   git log --oneline origin/main..HEAD
   ./scripts/release/check-versions.sh
   ```
   Tell them to trust that output over anything below it.

The rest: https://github.com/codewhale-hq/Codewhale/blob/HEAD/docs/skills/cw-handoff/SKILL.md