Workflow
The AI Agent Handoff Loop: How Work Carries Across Sessions
A practical model for carrying decisions, lessons, gotchas, and next steps from one AI work session into the next.
Article packet
Workflows
Developers and AI power users running multi-session work
5 min read
01
Session start: load relevant context before work begins.
02
During work: capture durable facts, decisions, gotchas, and follow-ups.
03
Session end: write a handoff so the next run knows what changed.
01
Why sessions need handoffs
AI work often fails at the boundary between sessions. The assistant did useful work, but the next run does not know what changed, what was decided, or where to continue.
A handoff loop turns that boundary into a habit. The next agent starts with the right context instead of replaying a full chat history.
02
The loop
Origin follows a simple rhythm: load context when a session starts, capture durable knowledge during work, write a handoff when the session ends, refine memory between sessions, and retrieve the right context next time.
The loop is deliberately practical. It focuses on what future agents need to act well: decisions, lessons, constraints, unresolved threads, and source provenance.
03
What belongs in a handoff
A good handoff is not a transcript. It should say what changed, what matters, what remains open, and which files, commands, or project areas are relevant.
The point is to compress the state of work into something useful for the next session.
- Decision made and why it was chosen.
- Lesson or gotcha discovered while debugging.
- Follow-up that should not be lost.
- Project context the next agent needs before editing.
04
How Origin supports it
Origin gives agents a place to save the durable parts of the session and a way to recall them through MCP later.
Between sessions, Origin deduplicates repeat facts, links related ideas, distills wiki pages, and keeps provenance attached so the memory gets better instead of merely larger.
Stop restarting from zero
Origin makes handoffs, decisions, and project context available when the next AI session begins.
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