The handoff prompt (and when to /compact vs /clear)

From @learningwithcole

Long chats get worse because Claude re-reads the whole conversation every turn. Anthropic's engineering team calls the drop in recall as the context grows "context rot" (source).

3 commands #

• /context: see what's filling the context window (a coloured grid by category)
• /compact focus on <thing>: summarize the chat but keep what you name. Example: /compact focus on the login bug
• /clear: start fresh with an empty context. /resume brings the old chat back.

My 3 rules #

1. Same task, getting messy? Use /compact with a focus.
2. New task? Use /clear. Don't drag old context into new work.
3. Clearing mid-project? Use the handoff prompt below first.

The handoff prompt (copy-paste) #

Before I clear this chat, write a handoff note for a fresh session. Use exactly these headings:
DONE: what we finished (files + one line each)
NEXT: the next 3 steps, in order
DON'T TOUCH: files, decisions or approaches we ruled out, and why
GOTCHAS: anything that tripped us up (errors, commands, env quirks)
HOW TO VERIFY: the exact command(s) that prove it works
Keep it under 200 words. Save it to HANDOFF.md.

Then /clear, and start the new chat with: "Read HANDOFF.md and continue from NEXT step 1."