How do I install the Handover skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add tradebaas/handover in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Handover safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Handover?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Handover free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Handover?

Tradebaas (@tradebaas) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Handover by tradebaas — Agent Skill

Name: Handover
Author: Tradebaas

Handover

Make the project fully transferable to another human or agent with zero verbal context. Use at milestones, before breaks, when a new person/tool joins, or when the owner asks "can someone else take this over?". The end of an ordinary session is `checkpoint`, not this.

Tradebaas 3466316 2.2 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

handover: the repo must speak for itself

The test is always the same: a competent stranger, any IDE, any model, gets only the repo. Can they continue within ten minutes? If anything requires this conversation, your memory, or files outside the repo, the handover is broken.

The audit

Walk it as the stranger would:

README.md → do the copy/start instructions still hold for this project?
AGENTS.md routing table → does every row point at a file that exists and is current?
docs/state/STATE.md handoff block → status, phase, branch, gates, Now ▶, blockers. Is it literally true right now? Stale handoff is the most damaging lie in the system.
docs/product/BRIEF.md → does it still describe the product that exists?
Can the stranger run it? Setup steps, env vars (.env.example complete?), seed data, docs/operations/ runbooks. Follow them literally; fix what's wrong, don't annotate around it. A fresh clone must also re-run node checks/check.mjs --install-hooks. Is that step where the stranger will see it (README/setup)?
Secrets and access: nothing secret in the repo, and a named list of what access a successor must be granted (where credentials live, who grants them) in docs/operations/access.md.
Open threads: in-flight specs at their real status; INTAKE triaged or explicitly queued; DEBT.md reconciled with defer: markers.

Fix everything fixable now. What you can't fix, write down as an explicit gap in STATE.md. A named gap is transferable; a hidden one isn't.

Human handover (milestone/project end)

Add a dated entry to STATE.md's log: what was delivered, where it runs, the three things a successor must know first, and the owner's open decisions. If the successor is non-technical, point them at README; if technical, at AGENTS.md. Nothing else to produce. If a separate "handover document" feels needed, the repo is failing this skill; fix the repo instead. ⚓

---name: handoverdescription: Make the project fully transferable to another human or agent with zero verbal context. Use at milestones, before breaks, when a new person/tool joins, or when the owner asks "can someone else take this over?". The end of an ordinary session is `checkpoint`, not this.---# handover: the repo must speak for itselfThe test is always the same: **a competent stranger, any IDE, any model, gets only the repo.Can they continue within ten minutes?** If anything requires this conversation, your memory, orfiles outside the repo, the handover is broken.## The auditWalk it as the stranger would:1. `README.md` → do the copy/start instructions still hold for this project?2. `AGENTS.md` routing table → does every row point at a file that exists and is current?3. `docs/state/STATE.md` handoff block → status, phase, branch, gates, Now ▶, blockers. Is it literally true *right now*? Stale handoff is the most damaging lie in the system.4. `docs/product/BRIEF.md` → does it still describe the product that exists?5. Can the stranger run it? Setup steps, env vars (`.env.example` complete?), seed data, `docs/operations/` runbooks. Follow them literally; fix what's wrong, don't annotate around it. A fresh clone must also re-run `node checks/check.mjs --install-hooks`. Is that step where the stranger will see it (README/setup)?6. Secrets and access: nothing secret in the repo, and a named list of what access a successor must be granted (where credentials live, who grants them) in `docs/operations/access.md`.7. Open threads: in-flight specs at their real status; INTAKE triaged or explicitly queued; DEBT.md reconciled with `defer:` markers.Fix everything fixable now. What you can't fix, write down as an explicit gap in STATE.md.A named gap is transferable; a hidden one isn't.## Human handover (milestone/project end)Add a dated entry to STATE.md's log: what was delivered, where it runs, the three things asuccessor must know first, and the owner's open decisions. If the successor is non-technical,point them at README; if technical, at AGENTS.md. Nothing else to produce. If a separate"handover document" feels needed, the repo is failing this skill; fix the repo instead. ⚓

Frequently asked questions