Baton — Documentation skill for Claude Code

Baton

Clean session handoffs. When you pass in-progress work to another agent — a fresh window, a future session, a different model — that runner starts with **zero of your context**. A baton is a single markdown file that lets them grab the work and sprint instead of re-deriving everything you already know.

Core principle

Capture what the next runner **can't reconstruct** from the code or git history — your *intent*, the *dead ends you already ruled out*, and the *exact next step* — grounded in verified repo state, not your chat narrative.

There are two sides to the skill: **drop a baton** (you're handing off) and **grab a baton** (you're picking one up).

When to use

**Drop a baton when:**

• A session ends with work unfinished and someone/something will continue it.
• The user says "hand this off", "pick up later", "pass this to another agent".
• You're running low on context and want to checkpoint before it's summarized away.
• You're about to dispatch the rest of the work to a separate agent/session.

**Grab a baton when:**

• Starting work in a repo where a prior session may have left one (check first).

**Don't use for:** a finished task (no handoff needed), or durable architecture rationale (that belongs in a long-lived design doc).

How it works

• Batons live in .baton/ at the repo root — local scratch, git-ignored, never committed.
• Filename is -.md; the next agent finds the latest with ls -t .baton/.
• The iron rule — verify before you write. A baton built from the chat story instead of repo reality is worse than none. Run git status and git branch --show-current first; the "State of play" section must reflect runtime truth, not the conversation.
• The format is a fixed set of sections — Intent & Goal, State of Play (verified against git), Learnings & Landmines, Pointers, Next Steps, Open Questions — so every handoff has a consistent, scannable shape.
• The highest-value content is the **dead ends