Takeover: Recover from Forgotten Handover

VerifiedSafe

Recovers context from a previous session that ended without running /handover by analyzing the transcript.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
ProductivityIntermediate
7/26/2026
Claude Code
#session-recovery#handover#context-management#transcript-analysis#claude-code

Recommended for

Automated summary

Recovers context from a finished Claude Code session that ended without a handover by parsing its .jsonl transcript and retroactively regenerating the .claude/handover.md document.

Strengths

  • Lists recent sessions from ~/.claude/projects with ID, project path, timestamp and size to guide selection
  • Extracts modified files, test failures, active tasks and open questions from the transcript
  • Explicitly flags the generation log entry as a takeover
  • Skips the WIP commit, avoiding a snapshot of a potentially outdated state

Limitations

  • Reads only the transcript file, with no access to the live conversation context
  • Recovered information may be incomplete or stale if the code changed since that session
  • Assumes the ~/.claude/projects layout and the standard handover skill structure
When to use it

Use it at the start of a new session when the previous one crashed or closed without running /handover.

When not to use it

Avoid it when the previous session already produced a valid handover, or when you want to resume live work rather than rebuild a handover document.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score82/100

The skill only lists and reads local transcript files and writes a handover document. It contains no network calls, credential exfiltration, destructive commands, obfuscated payloads, or safety-disabling instructions. The bash usage is limited to a directory listing, and the rest is file analysis and documentation generation, so the execution risk is minimal.

Findings
  • •Reads local session transcript files under ~/.claude/projects, which may contain sensitive conversation content; however, data stays local and is only surfaced to the user and written to .claude/handover.md.
How this analysis is made

Examples

Recover last session
My previous session crashed and I never ran /handover. Can you take over from the last one and rebuild the handover?
Pick an older session
/takeover — show me the recent sessions for this project so I can pick the one from yesterday afternoon to recover.
Recover learnings
Recover what we discovered in the session where we were debugging the auth tests, and update .claude/handover.md with it.

name: takeover description: Recover from a forgotten handover by analyzing a closed session's transcript. Use when you start a new session and realize the previous one didn't run /handover. user-invocable: true

Takeover Skill

Recover context from a previous session that ended without running /handover. This skill reads the transcript from a closed session and creates the handover document retroactively.

When to Use

  • You started a new session and realized the last one didn't handover
  • You want to recover learnings from an old session
  • The previous agent crashed or was terminated unexpectedly

Instructions

When this skill is invoked:

Phase 1: Find Recent Sessions

  1. List recent session transcripts:

    ls -lt ~/.claude/projects/*//*.jsonl | head -20
    
  2. Show the user a list of recent sessions with:

    • Session ID (first 8 chars)
    • Project path
    • Last modified time
    • File size (rough indicator of session length)
  3. Ask the user which session to recover:

    • "Which session would you like to recover? (enter number or session ID prefix)"
    • Default to the most recent one that's NOT the current session

Phase 2: Analyze the Transcript

  1. Read the selected transcript file (the .jsonl file)

  2. Extract all messages (both user and assistant) and parse them:

    // Each line is a JSON object
    // Look for j.message.role === "user" or "assistant"
    // Extract text content from j.message.content
    
  3. From the transcript, identify:

    • What was being worked on
    • Which files were modified (look for Edit/Write tool calls)
    • Any test failures mentioned
    • Any learnings or discoveries
    • Any suppressed issues (tests skipped, code commented out)
    • Any unresolved questions or decisions
    • Active tasks (look for TaskCreate/TaskUpdate calls)

Phase 3: Generate Handover Document

Follow the same structure as the regular handover skill, but note that this is a retroactive takeover:

  1. Read existing .claude/handover.md if it exists

  2. Create/update the handover document with:

    • All the standard sections (see handover skill)
    • Mark this as a takeover in the Generation Log: [date] Gen N (takeover): recovered from session XXXXXXXX — {summary}
  3. Do NOT create a WIP commit — the files may have changed since that session

Phase 4: Output Summary

Show the user:

  1. What was recovered from the old session
  2. The updated .claude/handover.md content
  3. Any warnings (e.g., "Files may have changed since that session")
  4. Reminder: "Review the handover document and verify the state is accurate"

Notes

  • This skill reads transcript files directly, it doesn't have the live conversation context
  • The recovered information may be incomplete compared to a live handover
  • Always verify the recovered state against the current codebase
  • If the project has changed significantly since the old session, some learnings may be stale

Transcript File Location

Session transcripts are stored at:

~/.claude/projects/{project-path-hash}/{session-id}.jsonl

The project path hash is the project directory with slashes replaced by dashes, e.g.: -Users-marc-bude-deepkit-framework

From the file to a first result

The download contains exactly the content displayed on this page. This copy may differ from the latest version in the source repository.

View the source and supporting files

This download contains SKILL.md only. Any scripts, references, templates and dependencies are not included. Get the required files from the source, preserving their directory structure, before continuing.

1. Download the file

Download SKILL.md

From the root of a test project, save the file as .skill-downloads/takeover-recover-from-forgotten-handover-ms1aw5t2/SKILL.md, or use the command below. This folder is for inspecting the skill before installation.

Command for macOS/Linux or WSL: requires a POSIX shell and curl. On Windows without WSL, use the download button and create the folder manually.

mkdir -p '.skill-downloads/takeover-recover-from-forgotten-handover-ms1aw5t2' && curl --fail --show-error --location 'https://skills-guides.com/api/skills/takeover-recover-from-forgotten-handover-ms1aw5t2/download' --output '.skill-downloads/takeover-recover-from-forgotten-handover-ms1aw5t2/SKILL.md.part' && mv '.skill-downloads/takeover-recover-from-forgotten-handover-ms1aw5t2/SKILL.md.part' '.skill-downloads/takeover-recover-from-forgotten-handover-ms1aw5t2/SKILL.md'

2. Check prerequisites

Read SKILL.md before using it. If it references scripts or external services, inspect them and prepare the required access in your test environment.

No recognized prerequisites section in this file. This does not mean it is self-contained: libraries, tools and access requirements may be mentioned elsewhere in the content or source repository.

The platforms on this page are catalog indications. The paths below follow tool documentation; they do not prove this skill has been run in those tools. No minimum tool version is confirmed for this listing.

3. Load the skill

After inspection, copy the complete folder into your project using one of the commands below, then open a new tool session. The command stops if a folder with the same name already exists: compare the files before replacing it.

Claude Code
test -f '.skill-downloads/takeover-recover-from-forgotten-handover-ms1aw5t2/SKILL.md' && test -s '.skill-downloads/takeover-recover-from-forgotten-handover-ms1aw5t2/SKILL.md' && mkdir -p '.claude/skills' && test ! -e '.claude/skills/takeover' && cp -R '.skill-downloads/takeover-recover-from-forgotten-handover-ms1aw5t2' '.claude/skills/takeover'

OpenSkills

OpenSkills must already be installed. The local install/read procedure is checked with OpenSkills 1.5.0, which requires Node.js ≥ 20.6.0. Catalog slugs are not resolved automatically.

Official OpenSkills installation
openskills install './.skill-downloads/takeover-recover-from-forgotten-handover-ms1aw5t2'

openskills read 'takeover-recover-from-forgotten-handover-ms1aw5t2'

Reading should display the installed file content and its base directory. It does not run the skill or install its dependencies.

For an agent that reads AGENTS.md, then sync the index. This command changes AGENTS.md: review the diff before using it.

openskills sync

Manual method or another tool: attach SKILL.md to a conversation, or open it in an agent that can read files. Include any required supporting resources. No universal folder is recognized by every tool.

4. Try a first task

Use a short, synthetic input: an API endpoint, a small document or an interface brief. In a new conversation, attach the file or give the agent its path, then adapt this request:

Read .skill-downloads/takeover-recover-from-forgotten-handover-ms1aw5t2/SKILL.md and apply its instructions to this example: [describe a test input]. Identify any missing files, dependencies or access. Produce the result requested by the skill without inventing data or running unreviewed scripts.

Expected result: output matching the skill instructions, or a precise list of missing prerequisites. A read confirmation alone does not validate a first use. If an external resource is unavailable, that path remains untested.

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