The handoff system I use daily with my AI

Your AI forgets everything you told it.

Why? Because that's literally how it's built.

Here's the thing — every time you send a message, the AI rereads your entire conversation from scratch.

It doesn't "recall" anything.

It reprocesses every word, every exchange, fresh. Like talking to someone with amnesia who reads your entire text history before every response.

That's why long conversations feel different. Around message 40 or 50, things change. The AI gets slower. Less sharp. Starts repeating itself. Misses details you mentioned 20 messages ago.

I used to think this was random. It's not.

Stanford researchers published a paper called "Lost in the Middle" that changed how I understand this.

They found something wild: even within the context window — even when information IS visible to the AI — it doesn't treat all positions equally.

There's a U-shaped curve.

The AI remembers the beginning of your conversation very well. It remembers the end very well. But it forgets the middle.

This is called primacy bias and recency bias.

First things stick.

Last things stick.

Everything in the middle? It's like it doesn't exist.

When researchers found that when critical information was placed in the middle of a long context, some models performed WORSE than if they had no context at all.

Adding more context isn't always better. Sometimes you're just burying signal in noise.

So what do you do about this?

You stop fighting the architecture and start exploiting/manipulating it.

I use something called a handoff document. Every single day. For 169 days now.

At the end of every AI session, I generate a structured summary. Not a transcript — a distilled context.

Only what matters. Then I paste it into a NEW conversation to continue work.

Why does this work?

Because you're taking everything important — from ALL positions in the old conversation — and concentrating it at the START of a fresh context. Right where the AI pays the most attention.

You're resetting the spotlight. Putting the signal where it can't be missed.

Here's the system:

The structure matters. Critical decisions go at the START. Next actions go at the END. Supporting context sits in the middle — where it matters less.

The 7 sections I use:

1. Orientation (what matters most right now)

2. Current state snapshot

3. Key decisions made (with rationale)

4. Progress made

5. Blockers & open questions

6. Context for reference

7. Next actions

The 3 prompts that make it work:

Prompt 1: Extraction (use mid-session, before things get lost)

List everything we've discussed, decided, or created so far in this conversation. Be comprehensive. I don't want to lose anything.

Prompt 2: Generation (use at end of session)

Create a handoff document for this session. Include:
1. Key decisions we made (with rationale)
2. Progress made (specific deliverables)
3. Current state of the project
4. Blockers and open questions
5. Next actions (prioritized)
6. Context the next session needs

Format this so I can paste it into a new conversation and continue exactly where we left off.

Prompt 3: Continuation (use at start of next session)

Read this handoff document from my previous session. Then:
1. Confirm you understand the project state
2. Ask any clarifying questions
3. Help me execute the first priority action

[Paste your handoff]

The AI doesn't forget. It never knew.

Your handoff document is how you give it memory.

Go try this for a week. Generate a handoff at the end of every session. Start fresh conversations with it pasted in.

Then tell me what happens.

I read every reply.

— Vaibhav