Long projects: passing on context between sessions

This lesson is still being tested: it improves with learners' feedback. If something is unclear, it is the lesson that needs fixing, not you.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to

keep a handoff sheet that lets you pick a project back up in one minute;
use your assistant’s projects to keep documents and instructions in the same place;
start again from a new conversation without losing anything;
check the pick-up summary, with an assistant as with an agent.

Why it matters to you

A three-week project means six to nine sessions. Between them, you forget details, and your assistant only remembers what it has kept. A conversation that lasts weeks becomes heavy; according to Claude’s help page, very long conversations use up more of your usage limit. The solution fits on one page: the handoff sheet, updated at the end of a session, pasted again at the start of the next.

Before you start


You need	Your assistant, free account, or Claude Code; your project sheet (lessons 1 to 3)
Cost	€0 with a free account; Claude Code, if you use it, requires a subscription
Duration	35 minutes
Reminder	The handoff sheet is pasted again at every session: nothing from the “never” list

Understand it in 3 minutes

Three ways to keep the thread, depending on your tool:

Your tool	What keeps the thread	What you do
An assistant, without a project	Your handoff sheet	You paste it at the start of each new conversation, and have it updated at the end
An assistant, with a project	The assistant’s project: its documents, its instructions, its conversations	You store your sheet and your documents there; each conversation in the project starts from them
Claude Code	Your project sheet and your journal, in your folder (modules 4 and 5)	“Where were we on my project?” at the start of a session, the journal page at the end

What the official help pages say (read on 24/10/2026):

Claude: a project is a separate space, with its own conversations and its documents; free accounts can create at most 5.
ChatGPT: a project groups conversations, files and instructions; on the free plan, a project accepts at most 5 files.
For conversations, Claude’s help page also says: when a conversation gets so long that Claude has to summarize the first messages to keep going, it uses up more of your usage limit; if you are nearing that limit, starting a new one helps.

The handoff sheet takes your project sheet, shorter, with three additions: the checks for each step, the points to watch (what is still uncertain or waiting), and a starting instruction (“tell me where we are, don’t start anything before I say yes”).

Do it together

1Step 1: Write your first handoff sheet

Open the Handoff sheet resource, copy the template, then fill it in from your project sheet. You can get help:

Here is my project sheet. Turn it into a handoff sheet, with exactly this form: [paste the template]. Write "to be specified" when a piece of information is missing. Don't make anything up.

2Step 2: The trial: a new conversation

Open a new conversation (or a new conversation in your project), paste the sheet, and send it. Compare the answer with the sheet:

does the summary say the same thing?
is the next action the right one?
does the AI wait for your yes before starting?

If something doesn’t match, it is often the sheet that is unclear: make it more precise.

3Step 3: Store it in a project (optional)

If your assistant offers projects, create a project for your work, and add your sheet and reference documents to it, with nothing from your “never” list: a project keeps its files and reuses them in its conversations.

ChatGPT: in the sidebar, choose the button to create a new project (“New project”), give it a name, then add your sheet.
Claude: open projects from the sidebar (“Projects”), or go to claude.ai/projects, then click the button to create a new project (”+ New Project”, at the top right). Give it a name, then add your sheet to the project’s knowledge base.
Claude is gradually rolling out a new version of projects, in beta, first for some Pro and Max subscribers. If your screen doesn’t look like this description, follow Claude’s “What are projects?” help page.

4Step 4: The end-of-session update

At the end of your next work session:

We're stopping here. Update the handoff sheet with what we did today: steps ticked off, new decisions with their reason, points to watch, next action. Keep exactly the same form, and don't add anything we haven't decided.

Read it, correct it, and keep it in place of the old one.

Your turn

Two sessions of your project, with a handoff:

the first one ends with the update of the sheet;
the second one starts in a new conversation, with the sheet pasted in;
compare the pick-up summary with the sheet, and correct before you go on.

Resources to download

Handoff sheet: the template to paste at the start of a conversation, and the update request for the end of a session.

Check your work

It worked if:

your handoff sheet fits on one screen, with nothing sensitive in it;
in a new conversation, the AI summarized your project without errors, and waited for your yes;
the sheet was updated at the end of the session, and reread by you;
the points to watch say what is still uncertain.

Common mistakes:

a sheet that copies the whole conversation: keep the essentials;
forgetting the end-of-session update: the sheet lies at the next session;
letting the AI add decisions that were not made;
keeping a single conversation going for weeks.

Keep it and pick it up later

Keep your handoff sheet with your project sheet: in a note, a document, or your assistant’s project.
With Claude Code, your journal and your project sheet do this job (module 5): the handoff sheet is mostly useful with a chat assistant.

Going further

optional

Your assistant’s memory (module 2, lesson 5) can retain some elements of the project, with no guarantee of what it keeps. The handoff sheet, on the other hand, says exactly what you decided.

New words

3 words explained

Word	What it means
Handoff sheet	A page to paste at the start of a conversation to pick a project back up
Point to watch	What is still uncertain, to be checked, or waiting for an answer
Project (of an assistant)	A space in Claude or ChatGPT that groups conversations, documents and instructions