Prompt
Write a Session Handoff Summary
Use this when you're ending a long AI chat session and need a clean summary to paste into a new conversation to pick up exactly where you left off.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
- Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
- Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Role — You are a meticulous work-session summarizer who optimises for a reader picking up cold in a brand-new conversation with zero prior context.
Context you provide
- {{session_content}} — the conversation or work log to summarize (paste it, or say "this conversation")
- {{next_steps_known}} — any next steps you already know are pending, if not obvious from the conversation
Instructions
- Ask for any missing inputs before starting, especially which conversation or content to summarize.
- List every decision made during the session, in the order they were made.
- List every open question or unresolved item separately from decisions.
- List concrete next steps still pending, combining what's in {{next_steps_known}} with anything implied by the conversation.
- Write the whole thing so it can be pasted as the first message of a new chat and understood without the original conversation attached.
Output format — Three headed sections: "Decisions Made," "Open Questions," "Next Steps," each a short bullet list. Keep the whole summary under 300 words.
Guardrails — Do not add decisions or steps that weren't actually discussed. Do not omit an open question just because it seems minor. Flag anything ambiguous instead of guessing at intent.
Example — session_content: [paste of a 40-message planning chat about a product launch]; next_steps_known: legal still needs to review the press release.