An AI agent workflow optimizer designed to safely ingest, validate, and continue development execution from previous session handoffs without losing context.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install handoff-receiver
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install handoff-receiver using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is Handoff Receiver?
The handoff-receiver skill is a specialized execution protocol designed for AI agents to resume development tasks from a previous session or other developer agents seamlessly. Part of the Openclaw Skills suite, this tool ensures that agents don't wander off-scope or re-architect existing solutions when picking up ongoing work. It accomplishes this by reading localized handoff indexes and active pointers, validating the agent's current workspace against the historical log, and establishing a clear, single source of truth.
By utilizing this skill within the Openclaw Skills framework, developers can prevent common multi-agent friction points such as redundant execution, state drift, and ignored constraints. It acts as a bridge between separate agent execution runs, preserving crucial context files, execution history, and next-step priorities.
Handoff Receiver Use Cases
- Resuming Paused Developer Sessions: Pick up work smoothly from where a previous coding agent or human left off without starting from scratch.
- Multi-Agent Collaboration: Safely hand off tasks from one specialized agent (like a planner) to an execution-focused agent using Openclaw Skills.
- State-Safe Workspace Auditing: Reconcile expected changes from a handoff report with actual repository changes before modifying code.
- Branch and Conflict Management: Detect and resolve diverging handoff streams or orphaned execution goals across different git branches.
How Handoff Receiver Works
- Locate and Parse: The agent searches for the active handoff file pointer using path fallbacks like
.trellis/handoffs/CURRENT,docs/handoffs/CURRENT, or the root directory. - Index Alignment: It reads the compact
INDEX.mdfile to evaluate the status of current and parallel streams, identifying any potential conflicts, orphans, or active tasks. - Read Crucial Context: The agent extracts decision-critical metadata in a strict order—starting with the overall Goal, followed by Current State, Next Steps, Decisions Made, and Context for the Next Session.
- Git Verification: It runs git queries (e.g., checking HEAD, status, and recent logs) to verify whether the actual repository matches the handoff's declared state.
- Orderly Execution: Work is carried out sequentially, focusing entirely on the first actionable items in the
Next Stepsblock. - Handoff Refresh: Once execution is completed or paused, the agent updates the handoff artifact, adjusts the index states, and outputs a formatted status report to the user.
Handoff Receiver Setup
Ensure that your local repository has standard Git tracking enabled and contains a directory or pointer file structure for handoffs (such as .trellis/handoffs/).
To use the handoff-receiver as part of your Openclaw Skills workflow, configure your agent with access to basic system commands (Bash, Read, Write, Glob, Grep).
You can initiate a takeover by prompting your agent with any of the supported trigger phrases:
# Examples of natural trigger prompts for the agent:
"take over this handoff"
"continue from handoff"
"resume from handoff"
"pick this up from previous session"
The system will automatically scan:
# Path resolution logic executed by the skill:
if [ -f ".trellis/handoffs/CURRENT" ]; then
cat .trellis/handoffs/CURRENT
echo ".trellis/handoffs/INDEX.md"
elif [ -f "docs/handoffs/CURRENT" ]; then
cat docs/handoffs/CURRENT
echo "docs/handoffs/INDEX.md"
elif [ -f "CURRENT" ]; then
cat CURRENT
echo "INDEX.md"
else
[ -f handoff.md ] && echo "handoff.md"
fi
Handoff Receiver Data Schema & Taxonomy
The handoff-receiver expects and writes to structured metadata files to preserve context across Openclaw Skills execution sessions.
Expected Directory Structure
.trellis/handoffs/ordocs/handoffs/: The home for all handoff-related tracking.CURRENT: A plain text file containing the relative path to the active markdown handoff file.INDEX.md: A markdown database tracking all active, orphaned, paused, or completed handoffs.
Key Index Status States
| Status State | Meaning & Action |
|---|---|
in_progress |
Active stream that matches the CURRENT pointer. Proceed with execution. |
paused |
Parallel work stream. Surfaced in terminal output but not executed. |
done / superseded |
Archived or completed stream. Safely ignored by the receiver. |
orphan |
Unmapped handoff file. Requires a prompt to classify prior to proceeding. |
Critical Handoff Document Sections
- Goal: High-level in-scope project description.
- Current State: Exact current features, metrics, or logs.
- Next Steps: Ranked bulleted list of immediate actionable goals.
- Decisions Made: Architectural trade-offs and constraints to prevent backtracking.
Handoff Receiver Advanced Features
- Automatic Index Verification: Detects and flags drift between active pointers and file structures to keep the repository's handoff state clean.
- Smart Branch Reconciliation: Compares git workspace diffs with documented files modified in the handoff log to alert users of major branch mismatches.
- Orphan & Conflict Remediation: Prompts the user with narrow, high-value questions whenever divergent parallel tasks are encountered, preventing destructive overwrites.
- Stateful Output Contracts: Guarantees concise summary outputs detailing goals, current execution steps, and active blockers in an easy-to-digest developer format.
SKILL.md
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