The handoff brief

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

write a handoff brief: context, goal, what to read, what is decided, criteria, things not to do, format of the reply;
test it in a new conversation;
see the difference with a vague request, on a real trial;
go from your handoff sheet (module 6) to a brief.

Why it matters to you

Another tool knows nothing about what you did in the first one. Neither does a new conversation. Whatever is not written down, it guesses, or it chooses for you: the format, the length, sometimes the actions. The handoff brief is the page that gives it everything it needs, and nothing more. It is also the page that will let you review its work (lesson 4).

Before you start


You need	Your usual assistant (free account), or Claude Code with a paid Claude plan; the book club exercise notes and the brief template (resources); your handoff sheet from module 6
Cost	€0 with a chat assistant on a free account; Claude Code requires a paid Claude plan
Duration	35 minutes
Reminder	A brief travels from one tool to the other: nothing from the “never” list in it

Understand it in 3 minutes

The handoff sheet and the brief look alike, but they do not serve the same purpose:

	Handoff sheet (module 6)	Handoff brief
For	Picking up your project, later	Handing one task to another tool
Contains	The whole project: steps, decisions, next action	A single task: what to read, the criteria, the format of the reply
Ends with	“Tell me where we are”	“Here is what I want to receive”

The parts of the brief (full template in the resource):

Context: who you are, the project, in two sentences.
Goal: the result, and what it will be used for.
To read: the files or texts provided, and only those.
Already decided: what is not to be reopened.
It worked if: verifiable criteria, including “nothing is made up”.
Do not: for example, do not edit any file, do not send anything.
Format of the reply: the result, what the tool relied on, the points to check.

What the brief does not replace: the tool’s settings. Writing “do not edit any file” is an instruction; in Claude Code, Manual mode is the protection (module 4, lesson 3).

Do it together

1Step 1: The vague request trial

Open a new conversation, paste the club notes (resource), then ask only:

Write the invitation for the evening, using the notes.

Look at the format, the length, what was added or left out.

In our trial of 24/10/2026, using Claude Code with no permission to write in the club folder, the session chose another format on its own: a web page, stored in its own temporary folder, with elements that nobody had asked for (a “stub” and a “stamp” in the style of a travel ticket), then tried to publish it online without being asked: the publication was waiting for permission and did not happen. It then offered to publish it, and still pointed out the missing information.

2Step 2: The same job, with the brief

Open another new conversation, and paste the complete club brief (it is in step 1 of lesson 2, and the empty template is in the resource). Compare.

In our trial, with the complete brief, the reply followed exactly the three parts requested, marked “[to be completed: club email address]” and “Cost sharing: [to be completed]”, and ended with “I did not edit or create any file.”

But it copied “Saturday, November 22” without flagging it, whereas in 2026 that day is a Sunday. The vague-request session had noticed it.

One trial alone does not tell you why, or which of the two is better: a brief does not prevent every mistake. Lesson 4 deals with that.

3Step 3: Your brief, from your handoff sheet

Choose a task from your project to hand to another tool (your roles table, lesson 1). Then:

Here is my handoff sheet: [paste it]. I want to hand this task to another tool: [the task].
Turn my sheet into a handoff brief, with exactly this form: [paste the template from the resource].
Keep only what is useful for this task. Write "to be specified" when a piece of information is missing. Do not make anything up.

Read it through: is each criterion verifiable? “Well written” is not; “120 words at most” is.

4Step 4: The brief test

Paste your brief into a new conversation, with nothing else, and with no memory (an incognito chat or memory turned off, as in lesson 2): otherwise it may fill in from memory what the brief leaves out. If the AI asks you a question whose answer was in your head, add it to the brief. Repeat until it can work without asking you anything other than what the brief provides for.

Your turn

Write the brief for the task you want to hand to another tool.
Test it in a new conversation, and complete it.
Keep the final version in your journal: it will be used for the review (lesson 4).

Resources to download

Handoff brief and review instruction: the brief template, the review instruction, and the table for deciding.
Exercise notes: the book club: the invented meeting notes for steps 1 and 2.

Check your work

It worked if:

you saw, on the exercise, the difference between the vague request and the brief;
your brief has its seven parts, and every criterion can be checked;
it passed the new-conversation test;
it contains nothing from the “never” list.

Common mistakes:

criteria that cannot be checked (“good”, “professional”);
giving the whole folder “just in case”: the tool then relies on useless files;
forgetting the format of the reply: each tool then answers in its own way;
believing that a good brief guarantees a result without mistakes.

Keep it and pick it up later

File your briefs in your journal, with the date and the tool that received them.
A brief that worked can be reused: keep it as a template for tasks of the same kind.

Going further

optional

In Claude Code, a brief that comes up often can become a skill (module 7, lesson 2).

New words

3 words explained

Word	What it means
Handoff brief	The page that hands a task to another tool: context, criteria, things not to do, format of the reply
Verifiable criterion	A condition you tick yes or no: “120 words at most”, “the date from the notes”
Format of the reply	What you want to receive, and in what order

The two trials of steps 1 and 2 were really run with Claude Code 2.1.310, without permission to write in the trial folder, in new and isolated sessions (test report, T44). To be checked: they have not been tested again in the app or in ChatGPT; the result may be different there.