HHandover

Product history

What changed in Handover

Factual release notes for the interfaces, workflows, and safeguards available to people and agents.

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Search and migration

Search provenance and safer Reporter migration review

Search results now explain when a match came from attached content or a file name, while Reporter migrations retain conservative review signals for large bundles and uncertain product mappings.

  • Lexical results preserve workspace and access scoping while returning source-aware excerpts.
  • Reporter migration previews surface read-only review reasons, target Space, report slug, and file count.
What this means for agents

Agents can distinguish metadata matches from attached-content matches and must keep flagged Reporter material visible for human review.

Continuation qualityWeb · Handoff readiness

A private readiness check for existing AI handoffs

An existing Markdown handoff can now be checked for the continuation-critical fields another human or AI agent needs before receiver verification.

  • Scores objective, observable acceptance, current and uncertain state, decisions, evidence, constraints, next action, receiver verification, and ownership.
  • Separates five required fields from supporting quality checks and explains every missing check.
  • Keeps pasted handoff text in the current browser tab and sends no draft contents to Handover while checking.
  • Exports a Markdown review or carries the result into a versioned Handover review with measured acquisition attribution.
  • States the verification boundary beside the score: field presence does not prove claims, evidence freshness, access, or safe execution.
  • Publishes a raw checklist for agents and exposes the tool through the sitemap, llms.txt, llms-full.txt, and ai-index.json.
What this means for agents

Agents can retrieve the raw readiness checklist, identify missing continuation fields before publication, and leave factual verification to a separately authenticated receiver.

ResearchWeb · Research index 1.0

One inspectable index for Handover evidence

Handover now publishes one human and agent-readable index for its open continuity benchmark, production migration field report, stable handoff protocol, and runnable continuation demo.

  • Keeps direct findings beside methods, raw or structured artifacts, publication status, and material limitations.
  • Publishes a CollectionPage with Dataset, TechArticle, DigitalDocument, and SoftwareApplication evidence records.
  • Provides a research.json index with canonical evidence links and reusable JSON, CSV, Markdown, SQL, and JavaScript artifacts.
  • Connects the main AI agent handoff guide and benchmark to the consolidated evidence surface.
  • Adds the research index to the sitemap, llms.txt, llms-full.txt, ai-index.json, and the automated discovery audit.
What this means for agents

Agents can retrieve one bounded index, inspect the direct finding and limitations for each evidence track, and follow canonical links to the underlying dataset, schema, field report, or runnable continuation artifacts.

AuthenticationWeb · MCP

Browser sign-in for compatible MCP hosts

Interactive MCP hosts can now connect through Handover's own standards-based OAuth flow, preserving the signed-in person's company, workspace, access, and authorship without a pasted employee token.

  • Publishes RFC-compatible protected-resource and authorization-server metadata at both root and path-specific discovery URLs.
  • Supports signed dynamic client registration with exact HTTPS or loopback redirect validation.
  • Requires authorization code + PKCE S256 and shows the client, person, company, and scopes on the consent screen.
  • Issues short-lived access tokens and rotating refresh-token families; replaying a used refresh token revokes the family.
  • Binds every OAuth session to the approving principal, organization, workspace, and storage cell.
  • Keeps service-credential management outside OAuth scopes and preserves named service accounts for unattended automation.
What this means for agents

Compatible interactive hosts can register, open browser consent, refresh their session, and act as the signed-in person; unattended agents continue to use separately named, scoped, and revocable service identities.

Open formatHCR 1.0 · Skills 1.3.0

An open, machine-readable handoff record

The Handoff Continuity Record is a platform-neutral JSON format for the exact state another human or agent needs to verify and continue work.

  • Defines objective, state, decisions, artifacts, constraints, questions, next actions, and provenance in JSON Schema Draft 2020-12.
  • Publishes a valid example, a dependency-free validator, and explicit producer and receiver conformance requirements.
  • Separates the handoff payload from MCP tools, A2A routing, authentication, storage, and product-specific behavior.
  • Keeps unresolved review visible and links resolved findings to the revision that addressed them.
  • Mirrors the format and validator in the public MIT-licensed integration repository.
  • Adds an installable Agent Skill that creates, validates, publishes, and reads back the portable record.
What this means for agents

Agents can exchange one platform-neutral record, validate it locally, preserve the original evidence, and then store or transport it through Git, MCP, A2A, the Handover CLI, or Handover itself.

Agent ecosystemWeb · Skills 1.3.0

skills.handover.sh is now the home for Handover workflows

The Handover Skills catalog now helps people and agents discover official and reviewed community workflows that operate through Handover MCP or the CLI.

  • Separates portable skill instructions from the authenticated MCP and CLI runtimes that perform the work.
  • Filters the catalog by MCP or CLI compatibility and searches tools, tasks, publishers, and outcomes.
  • Preserves publisher provenance, inspectable source, requirements, and compatibility on every listing.
  • Publishes raw SKILL.md files, index.json, .well-known/skills.json, llms.txt, and a dedicated sitemap for machine discovery.
  • Adds a release-grade continuity test covering multi-file read-back, revision-anchored review, correction, successor recovery, and negative access paths.
  • Adds a format-aware workflow for creating and validating the open Handoff Continuity Record before publication.
  • Provides a reviewed contribution path for product, engineering, research, support, and operations workflows.
What this means for agents

Agents can discover a workflow, read its raw SKILL.md source, confirm whether it uses MCP or the CLI, act through a server-resolved Handover identity, and qualify continuity beyond a successful connection.

PublishingWeb

Public report links now preview the report

Shared public handovers now carry their own title, summary, canonical URL, and revision-derived image into Slack, X, LinkedIn, Discord, and other link previews.

  • Selects an explicit handover-preview, social, og, cover, or preview image when the published revision contains one.
  • Falls back to another safe raster artifact and then the Handover brand image.
  • Supports Open Graph and large Twitter cards for HTML, Markdown, code, image, and other viewable publication entries.
  • Keeps organization-only publication metadata and artifacts unavailable to anonymous crawlers.
What this means for agents

Agents can include a 1200 × 630 handover-preview.png artifact when publishing a public report so shared links communicate the work itself rather than a generic product page.

OnboardingCLI 0.1.3 · Skills 1.1.0

One-command connection verification for people and agents

Handover can now verify the endpoint, authenticated identity, workspace, role, scopes, and a protected context read before an agent writes.

  • Added the read-only handover doctor command to the npm and direct-download CLI.
  • Published the handover-verify Agent Skill with MCP and CLI paths, failure classification, and a two-identity continuity test.
  • Added a query-focused connection testing guide and raw agent-readable verification checklist.
  • Kept verification fail-closed: credentials never appear in output, and a transport pass is never reported as a write or continuity pass.
What this means for agents

Agents can verify their server-resolved identity and least-privilege boundary, test one protected read, and stop at the first failed layer before attempting protected work.

DistributionCLI 0.1.0

A public CLI and inspectable discovery surface

Handover became installable from npm and discoverable through the official MCP Registry, mcpub, Glama, search engines, and agent-readable indexes.

  • Published the dependency-free handover-sh CLI with repository provenance and clean install verification.
  • Added the open AI Handoff Continuity Benchmark, reusable templates, working examples, and source-linked field guides.
  • Published llms.txt, llms-full.txt, ai-index.json, host recipes, and an MCP discovery manifest.
  • Automated IndexNow notifications and a weekly audit of every public canonical, social preview, crawler rule, and agent index.
What this means for agents

Agents can install a public CLI, inspect the hosted MCP contract, retrieve reusable knowledge assets, and verify Handover's current public capabilities without relying on marketing copy.

Collaboration

Revision-anchored review for humans and agents

People and agents can comment on the exact text, code, or file revision they reviewed, mention another authorized collaborator, and carry unresolved feedback into the next continuation.

  • Added anchored annotations for Markdown, code, JSON, and rendered artifact review.
  • Made annotation threads available in the workspace, full-screen reader, mobile drawer, HTTP API, and MCP.
  • Added edit, reply, resolve, reopen, and mention workflows without changing immutable revision contents.
  • Kept mentions access-neutral: a notification never grants permission to the underlying handover.
What this means for agents

Authorized agents can read unresolved review threads, add or edit feedback, mention a person or service identity, and resolve a thread after publishing the revision that addresses it.

Migration

Resumable Reporter migration and clearer revision history

Reporter inventories can move into Handover through bounded, resumable batches while preserving folders, publication bundles, file relationships, and the review queue.

  • Added resumable inventory, bounded retries, batch mappings, and recovery for interrupted Reporter imports.
  • Preserved Reporter-compatible publishing folders as projections over canonical Handover revisions.
  • Improved revision timelines with attributable human and agent activity.
  • Added readable formatting for SQL, scripts, Markdown source, and rendered previews.
What this means for agents

Agents can continue imported work through the same canonical MCP tools instead of targeting a separate legacy report store.

Onboarding

Private personal workspaces for individual developers

A person can use Handover without first creating a company, then move into shared company workflows when collaboration requires it.

  • Added private personal organizations isolated from every company workspace.
  • Added clear onboarding paths for individuals, company owners, employees, and service agents.
  • Added a full-page artifact reader and sign-in return paths for shared private links.
  • Published the CLI installer and external-user privacy and terms pages.
What this means for agents

An individual can issue a named agent credential inside a private workspace and preserve identity across model switches without exposing context to a company.

Identity

Company SSO, Spaces, and attributable agent access

Company members can join through an approved Google Workspace domain, organize context into Spaces, and give each human or agent an attributable identity.

  • Added Google SSO through Cloudflare Access and per-user OAuth attribution for supported MCP clients.
  • Added company naming, approved domains, invitations, membership roles, and a company view.
  • Added Spaces as logical product, department, or operating-area boundaries inside a company.
  • Added signed-in account details, logout, workspace selection, and automatic refresh.
What this means for agents

Agents authenticate as named service identities or supported human OAuth identities; authorship is derived from the credential rather than supplied in tool arguments.

Foundation

The first versioned handover platform

Handover launched on company-owned Cloudflare infrastructure with canonical D1 and R2 storage, MCP and HTTP interfaces, arbitrary artifacts, Spaces, and Reporter-compatible workflows.

  • Added immutable handover revisions, artifact storage, search, continuation briefs, comments, and lifecycle controls.
  • Added tenant isolation, scoped service credentials, backup verification, storage cells, and request tracing.
  • Added Markdown, SQL, HTML, JSON, image, and arbitrary-file publishing.
  • Added provider-neutral imports, exports, OKF interoperability, and production-safe MCP access.
What this means for agents

Agents gained one authenticated interface for finding, reading, publishing, and continuing durable context alongside human collaborators.