Keep the work, drop the weight.
When a session grows too long, Earlyman writes a short hand-off so you can carry on in a fresh session, another model or another tool.
Long session
92 % full
Slow, costly, easy to lose the thread.
Hand-off
- GoalFix the retry logic
- DoneTests pass on checkout
- NextAdd the missing edge case
- AvoidDo not touch billing
Continues in a fresh session
6 % full
Starts light, knows where it left off.
- ShortThe goal, what is done, what is next and what to avoid.
- PortableFits a fresh session, another Claude model or another tool.
- CheckedEarlyman can test that the next session picks up cleanly.
How a hand-off works. From a heavy session to a light one.
- 01Notice the weightEarlyman sees when a session has grown long, slow and costly.
- 02Write a short hand-offIt sums up the goal, what is done, what is next and what to avoid, in a few lines.
- 03Carry on freshPaste it into a new session, another model or another tool, and pick up where you left off.
Start fresh from the inbox.
The real layout, with sample data. Nothing you click is sent or saved.
Good morning. 4 things need you. Most urgent: a stuck agent is still costing money.
- An agent has made no progress for 2 hA tool call is still pending. Stop it or start it again.$3.10 / h
- PR #214 broke a rule: force push to mainBlocked before it ran. The agent carried on.1 rule
- Search subagents run on the largest model418 of 483 this week. A smaller model is enough for search.−$38 / week
- This session has run for 9 hHand off to a fresh session to stop paying for old context.−$6 / day
All caught up.
-
Tokens2.4MSessions2ModelOpusRuleforce push to main · blocked
-
Tokens910kSessions1ModelSonnetRulesall kept
-
Tokens7.1MSessions7ModelOpusRulesall kept
-
Tokens380kSessions1ModelHaikuRulesall kept
Click a pull request to open its receipt.
- checkout-retryOpusstuck 2 h$3.10 / h
- invoice-exportSonnetrunning$1.20 / h
- search-docsOpusrunning$2.40 / h
- test-fixerHaikurunning$0.18 / h
- 8 moremixeddone$0.00 / h
- No force push to mainblocked PR #2141 hit
- No secrets in commits0 hits
- Ask before deleting files3 hits
- Stop an agent idle for 30 m2 hits
3 of 4 rules on.
Last 7 days · $126 · busiest Thursday, $31
- Opus54 %$71.40
- Sonnet31 %$18.90
- Haiku11 %$1.30
- Local 8B4 %$0.00
A smaller model is enough for 418 search calls on Opus this week. Move them to Haiku: −$38 / week
Questions
Which tools can a hand-off go to?
A fresh Claude session, another Claude model, or tools such as Codex, Gemini, Cursor, Aider and OpenCode.
Does the hand-off leave my computer?
No. It is written on your computer, and you decide where to paste it.
How do I know nothing was lost?
Earlyman can check that the next session picks up the goal and the open work cleanly.