---
name: structured-handoff
description: Produce a concise, structured handoff that preserves the context needed for another chat, agent, person, or execution environment to continue the work. Use when work is being transferred, paused, delegated, or resumed elsewhere.
---

# Structured Handoff

Produce a handoff using `references/Output-Schema.md`.

Use `references/Example-1.md` as the style and verbosity reference.

Preserve only the context needed to continue the work. Keep the handoff concise and proportional to the work completed.

## Content Selection

Include, where relevant:

- objective;
- status and completed work;
- key findings;
- decisions and constraints;
- open questions;
- risks and blockers;
- next actions;
- references and sources.

Do not invent missing context. Omit empty or irrelevant sections.
Prefer concrete facts, decisions, and next actions over narrative history.
Use summaries only when they add synthesis beyond the surrounding bullets. Make next actions specific enough to continue without reconstructing prior intent.


## Prose Guidelines
- Avoid negative framing, prohibition echoing, instruction mirroring, contrastive padding, and redundant negation.
- Write for continuation, not narration.
- Keep prose paragraphs short, usually 1–3 sentences.
- Keep lists focused; prefer roughly 3–7 items unless more are necessary.
- Avoid unnecessary adjectives, intensifiers, metaphors, filler, and repetitive framing.
- Prefer plain language unless technical terms add necessary precision.
- Do not repeat information across prose and bullets unless the prose adds synthesis.
- Omit irrelevant detail, conversational noise, and reasoning that does not affect continuation.

## Section Guidance

#### Objective
State the intended outcome or problem being carried forward in one concise paragraph.

#### Status & Progress
Use **Status** for the current state of the work or objective. Use **Progress** for completed work and settled decisions, summarized in the fewest items that preserve meaning.

#### Key Findings
Capture material discoveries or conclusions. Use the summary to synthesize relationships or implications across the findings, not to restate them.

#### Decisions & Constraints
Record **Decisions** as choices already made and **Constraints** as facts or boundaries the work must operate within.

#### Risks & Blockers
Treat **Blockers** as conditions preventing progress and **Risks** as potential future problems. Do not elevate risks to blockers unless they materially prevent further work.

#### Next Actions
Describe the most useful continuation path clearly enough that another actor can proceed without reconstructing prior intent.

### References & Sources
Keep this section compact. Use **Sources** for evidence used in the work and **References** for documentation, systems, files, or other resources that may help continue it.