Handoff: what it means
By Soumen Sarkar · October 2026
A handoff is what unfinished work carries for whoever continues it: what's done, what's left, the next step, and what to watch out for.
A handoff lets anyone continue work without asking the person or agent who started it. It travels with the work, not with a conversation, so the next session starts where the last one stopped.
A complete handoff answers five things:
- Done: what is finished and working.
- Left: what remains.
- Next step: the single thing to do first.
- Open questions: assumptions nobody has confirmed.
- Watch out for: the traps the last session found.
For example: "Done: the export endpoint streams CSV for invoices. Left: add credit notes; add a test for empty months. Next step: extend exportRows to accept credit notes. Open: assumed exports use the account's timezone, not UTC. Watch out: the invoices query times out without the issued_at index, so run the migration first."
Someone picks it up, reads it in a minute, and runs the migration before anything else. We say the work is picked up, not handed to someone: whoever is free continues it.
The handoff template works in any repository. In Claude Code, Campfyrr writes a handoff from the session whenever it stops, compacts or ends; the transcript itself isn't kept. Your own handoffs and the ones meant for you open your next session under "Pick up where it was left", and the Activity feed shows each one as work paused partway, with its next step. To take over a teammate's, paste it into your first prompt. How long they wait is the pick-up time.
The principle behind this: Let the work speak: Our work explains itself, so nobody ever has to come and ask us.
Related: Work in progress · Pick-up time · Reasons
Questions that use it
Move as one at agent speed. Nobody waits. Add Campfyrr to Claude: it briefs every agent before it touches the code, keeps assumptions and handoffs where the team can see them, and never takes your code (what it keeps).