No handoff was written before the AI session failed

The cleanest workflow is to write a handoff before the session dies. The painful workflow is the real one: you forget, the model gets blocked, and now you need to recover anyway.

Short version: If you forgot to write the note, recover from what survived.

Why this hurts.

Proactive memory tools work when the habit holds. The missed-update window is where the task becomes expensive.

How ShardStitch solves it.

01 / ShardStitch

Inspect the working tree first

Start with disk truth: diff, files, commits, notes, and project memory.

02 / ShardStitch

Collect completed and pending checks

Collect the latest test outputs and identify checks that passed, failed, or have not run; do not infer success from changed files.

03 / ShardStitch

Mark chat-only context honestly

Label inferred next steps so the next agent does not treat guesses as facts.

04 / ShardStitch

Write the next action, not a transcript

Write one next action with a verifiable result so the next AI can continue without replaying the whole transcript.

What the next AI receives.

  • What changed
  • What is still recoverable
  • What must be inferred
  • What to verify first

What stays out.

  • Pretending missing reasoning is certain
  • Overconfident summaries
  • Unverified claims
  • Stale memory

Rebuild a handoff from surviving evidence

Start with the project root, branch, status, and diff. This identifies the work that actually reached disk before the session ended.
Check recent commits, test logs, command output, and project notes. Separate completed checks from commands that were merely planned or started.
List missing decisions or rejected approaches as open questions. Do not claim that repository inspection can recover conversation-only details.
Create a concise restart brief with the objective, evidence, risks, and one next action. Review it against the checkout before handing it to another tool.

FAQ.

Can I recover work if I never wrote a handoff?

Some state may survive in saved files, Git history, logs, and notes. Unsaved edits and context stored only in the lost conversation may not; inspect each source rather than assuming complete recovery.

What should I do before generating a new handoff?

Confirm the active project and branch, inspect the diff, and identify the last command with a real result. Treat everything else as pending or unknown.

Related pages.

Coding session diedVerification state was lostAll pain pointsGet ShardStitch

When no notes survived.

Inventory the branch, modified and untracked files, recent commits, and saved terminal output using read-only checks. Preserve unsaved editor buffers separately before restarting. A changed file proves an edit exists, not why it was chosen; decisions and rejected approaches that lived only in the lost conversation may remain unknown.