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Working with AI Conversations

Summarize a Chat for Handoff

Asks the assistant to write a handoff brief with goal, decisions, constraints and next steps, ready to paste into a new chat.

Designed for general-purpose AI assistantsPublished November 2026

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Preview

I am going to continue this work in a new conversation, possibly with a different AI assistant. Write a handoff brief for the conversation so far that I can paste into the new chat as its first message.

Include, in this order:
1. Goal: what I am trying to achieve, in two sentences.
2. Current state: what exists now and what has been tried, including things that did not work and why.
3. Decisions made: each decision with the reason behind it, so it is not reopened by accident.
4. Constraints and preferences: tools, style, audience, deadlines, and anything I told you to always or never do.
5. Open questions and the next three steps, in order.
6. Key material: names, numbers, snippets and definitions the new assistant must have, quoted exactly.

Rules: be specific, never invent details that were not in the conversation, and mark anything you are unsure about with [check]. Keep the brief under 400 words, and write it so it makes sense to someone who has not seen the conversation.

Copy customized prompt includes your values. Copy original keeps the {{placeholders}}.

How to use it

  1. Send this at the end of the long conversation you want to continue, in the same chat so the assistant can see everything.
  2. Read the brief and fix anything marked [check] or anything that is wrong. This is the only context the new chat will have.
  3. Paste the corrected brief as the first message of a new chat, then add your next request underneath it.
  4. Raise the word limit for long projects, or lower it to fit a model with a small context window.

Example output

Illustrative only. Real answers depend on your input and the assistant you use.

Goal: Launch a two-page pricing site for a small accounting tool by the end of the month. The page should convert visitors from the existing blog.

Current state: Layout and copy for the hero and the three plans are drafted. A yearly-discount toggle was tried and dropped because it confused testers.

Decisions made:
- Three plans, not four, because the fourth overlapped with the second.
- Prices shown without cents, to keep the page scannable.

Constraints and preferences: Plain, friendly tone; no jargon; must work without JavaScript; never use stock photos of people.

Open questions and next steps: (1) [check] whether the free trial is 14 or 30 days; (2) write the FAQ; (3) review the page on mobile.

Key material: Plan names are Solo, Team and Studio. Tagline: "Books that close themselves."

Tips

If the new assistant also supports attachments, you can paste the brief into a text file instead of the message box.

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