HandoffPilot is a skill for Claude Code and Codex that addresses a specific pain point in agent-assisted development: losing progress when a session fills its context window, hits a limit, or needs to restart. Rather than asking the model to ad-hoc summarize what happened, HandoffPilot writes a structured handoff file into a .claude/handoffs/ directory. That file captures the active plan, git branch, uncommitted changes, recent commits, decisions made, failed attempts, blockers, open questions, and a next-steps checklist.
When a new session resumes, the agent reads only the latest handoff file rather than the full conversation history, keeping token usage low. It summarizes the captured state, checks for branch or worktree drift, and prompts to continue where work left off. The output is Markdown, which is readable by humans and parseable by agents after a restart.
The skill is appropriate when ending a session, approaching the context limit, switching between Claude Code and Codex, or handing work off to a fresh agent. It bundles reusable templates for decisions, blockers, and checklists, a helper script for git-state capture, a sample handoff file, and installation instructions. It is designed to be understood quickly and used repeatedly across long-running refactors or multi-session development workflows.