Session Handoff¶
AI agents forget everything when a session ends. If you're building a feature across multiple sessions, the next one starts with zero context. Session handoff automatically captures what was accomplished, what's still in progress, and what decisions were made — so your next session can pick up where you left off instead of re-discovering everything.
Automatic context handoff between sessions for seamless continuation of work.
How It Works¶
When a session ends, Sidekick can generate a handoff document summarizing:
- What was accomplished
- What's in progress
- Key decisions made
- Relevant context for the next session
- Truncation stats — how many tool outputs were truncated and which tools were affected
- Context health warning — if the session's context degraded below 50% fidelity, the handoff flags that earlier decisions may need re-verification
- Incomplete goal gates — critical tasks that weren't completed get a dedicated section so the next session prioritizes them
- Plan progress — completed and remaining plan steps with last active step status
On the next session start, Sidekick can notify you that a handoff is available.
New to context management?
Handoffs work by writing session context into files that your agent reads at the start of the next session. If you're not familiar with how agent context, instruction files, and session boundaries work, see the Context Management primer.
Configuration¶
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
sidekick.autoHandoff |
off |
Handoff mode |
Handoff Modes¶
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
off |
No handoff generation |
generate-only |
Generate handoff document at session end |
generate-and-notify |
Generate and show notification at next session start |
Setup¶
Run "Sidekick: Setup Handoff" to add a reference to your agent instruction file (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, etc.) that tells the agent where to find previous session context.
Storage¶
Handoff documents are stored in ~/.config/sidekick/handoffs/ with project-specific naming.