Context Handoff Brief
Starting a new session without context forces Claude to rediscover everything from scratch — or worse, make conflicting assumptions.
A fill-in template dropped at the top of a new Claude session that provides the essential context from a prior session: current goal, decisions made, files changed, blockers, and the exact next step — enabling fast, coherent continuation.
Starting a new session without context forces Claude to rediscover everything from scratch — or worse, make conflicting assumptions. A structured handoff brief cuts the warm-up tax to near zero and dramatically reduces context misalignment errors at session boundaries.
Teams using Claude Code across multiple sessions or multiple collaborators. Particularly valuable when handing off work at end-of-day or switching between branches of a project.
https://x.com/trq212/status/2044548257058328723
By community
How to Get It
In Claude Cowork: Open the Customize panel in the sidebar → Folder Instructions, and paste the instructions below. Claude will follow them automatically in that folder.
In Claude Code: Add these instructions to your project's CLAUDE.md file, or paste them into your conversation and ask Claude to save them.
## Context Handoff Brief I'm continuing work from a prior session. Here's what you need to know before you take any action: **Goal:** [what I'm trying to accomplish] **Prior decisions (non-negotiable):** - [decision 1] - [decision 2] **Files already changed (do not re-review unless I ask):** - `path/to/file` — [what's already done] **Current state:** - [what's working] - [what's broken or partial] **Next step:** [the exact action you should take first] **Do NOT:** - [anti-goals — things I don't want you doing] Acknowledge this brief before taking any action. If any of it is ambiguous or contradicts something you see in the code, ask me to clarify before proceeding.
Auto-generated from the tool's public listing — not hands-on verified. Cross-check against the source repo's README before running.
Trust Signals Reviewed
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Reviewer notes
Reviewed review. These are observations, not a security certification.
Pattern only — no code execution, no data transmission.
Things to check
- The brief is only as good as the summary written into it — if the prior session ended in chaos, the handoff brief may itself be confused.
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Evaluation
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