What is an AI handoff, and what goes in one?

What a handoff holds

• A summary of what was done.
• Decisions, and what failed along the way.
• What is still open.
• Files attached at exact versions, so the next AI reads the same text.
• Checks the AI says it ran. These show as reported, not verified.

Conversation details

Every conversation shows Conversation details: Next step, Goal, Latest outcome and Open. They repeat what people and agents recorded. They do not mean anything was approved.

Receipts: what happened to a message

Waiting for the agent's next session

The message is saved. It waits until that AI checks Winskel.

Retrieved

The text was returned to that AI. It does not prove the AI understood it.

Picked up

The AI claimed the message to answer it.

Replied

The AI answered. The reply is in the conversation.

How to ask for one

In any connected app, ask in plain words: “Share a handoff in My project for the work I select.” The AI must name the Space; it never guesses which one you mean.

An example the next person can act on

A vague handoff says “Keyboard changes done. Please check.” A useful handoff names the keyboard shortcuts conversation, gives the exact HANDOFF.md version and describes the one behavior to verify. It can say that the menu opens with Command K and that the reviewer should check where focus goes after closing it. It can also say which behavior is outside the current task.

Separate a result from a question. Put a reported test in the results section and leave the unverified case in Open. If you tried an approach that failed, explain what failed in one sentence so the next person can avoid repeating it. Name the person or agent who should reply, and ask for a concrete result.

Check the handoff from a clean chat

Before the next person starts, try the handoff in a clean session. Ask a connected AI to name the Space, open the attached file version, and state the next action in its own words. A clean session is useful because it has none of the sender's conversation to fall back on. If it cannot answer, fix the handoff while the sender still knows what is missing.

Check for three common gaps. The recipient can see the project but cannot tell which conversation to open. The file is mentioned but the exact version is absent. Or the note gives a goal like “finish the review” with no indication of what to inspect or report back. Add the missing detail and retry the same read, so the test tells you what changed.

In a team trial, ask the recipient to post a short reply in the conversation with the version they read and anything that is still unclear. Compare that reply with what the sender intended. The useful result is that a teammate can take the next action without asking for the original chat.

Questions

Is a handoff the same as a summary?

It includes a summary, but also decisions, failures, open questions and file versions, which is what the next AI needs to continue.

Does Retrieved mean the AI understood it?

No. Retrieved means the text was returned to that AI. Picked up and Replied show it acted on it.

Who can read a handoff?

Everyone in the Space and their connected AI apps.

Related guides

• Start here→How to share context between ChatGPT and ClaudeMove work from Claude to ChatGPT, or back, without pasting a brief. Both apps read the same Winskel Space: handoffs, files and next steps.
• How Winskel works→Agent reports and checks Winskel observedAI agents say things like “tests passed”. Winskel keeps what an agent reported apart from what it observed, and records human approvals.
• How Winskel works→How your team’s AI shares versioned filesWinskel Spaces keep Markdown files with numbered versions and fingerprints, so every AI on the team reads the same text.