The handoff file: pausing and resuming work with Claude

Claude doesn't remember yesterday. Every new session starts blank, which is a problem for a design project that runs over weeks.

While working on the Check In App's home screen, I tried a fix: before closing a session, I had Claude write a handoff file, a short document I paste into the next session to pick up exactly where we left off. It covers:

• Where the work lives: the Figma file, the page and the exact frame we were working on
• What's on screen now, section by section, from the greeting to the sticky bottom bar
• Decisions already made, like "Light theme. Do not go back to dark navy; user explicitly chose light."
• How to resume: connect Figma, take a screenshot, keep iterating

The decisions list turned out to be the most valuable part. Without it, a fresh session would happily undo choices I'd already made, like suggesting a dark theme again or "fixing" a row of quick links that's cropped on purpose to show it scrolls.

It's the same thing a good teammate does before a vacation: leave a note that says where things are, what's decided and what's next. The next day, I wrapped up a much longer session the same way, with a session summary.

A good handoff note works for people. It turns out it works for AI too.