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OCH — Open Context Handoff

License: MIT

You are not losing context.
You are losing continuity of thought.

OCH is a small, human-readable Snapshot format for carrying working context from one AI system to another.

If you switch between ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Cursor, Claude Code, or other agents, OCH helps you continue the same work without rebuilding the whole story.

No install. No account. No agent framework. Just a reviewed handoff artifact you can copy between AI systems.

Should you star this?

Star OCH if you want:

  • a copy/paste protocol for cross-AI handoff
  • prompts that force one clear NEXT ACTION
  • a human-reviewed context artifact, not hidden platform memory
  • examples and trial templates for testing whether handoff actually worked

Do not star it expecting a CLI, agent, memory system, or automation framework. OCH is intentionally a protocol.

Try it in 60 seconds

  1. Open USE_OCH.md.
  2. Copy the source prompt into your current AI window.
  3. Review the generated Snapshot.
  4. Paste the receiver prompt and reviewed Snapshot into a new AI window.

For the guided path, start with START_HERE.md. For the full trial, use docs/15-minute-trial.md.

What is in this repo?

Need Start here
Fastest copy/paste path USE_OCH.md
Snapshot format docs/snapshot-format.md
Generator prompt prompts/snapshot_generator_prompt.md
Receiver prompt prompts/receiver_prompt.md
Real examples examples/
Trial result template tests/user-trial-result-template.md

30-second demo

Without OCH, a new AI window often starts with:

Can you share the project background and what has already been decided?

With OCH, the receiving AI can start from the handoff:

I’ll continue from NEXT ACTION while preserving the stated DECISIONS and CONSTRAINTS.

The handoff artifact is a reviewed Snapshot, not the full prior conversation.

### WHAT WE ARE DOING
...

### DECISIONS
- Do not reopen the settled direction.

### CONSTRAINTS
- Keep the output human-reviewed.

### NEXT ACTION
Continue from the next concrete step.

The shift

We no longer work with a single AI system.

We constantly move between:

ChatGPT · Claude · Gemini · Cursor · Claude Code · Agents

But something breaks every time we switch:

Our thinking does not carry over.

Only fragments do.


The invisible problem

Every switch forces you to:

  • re-explain what you're doing
  • rebuild your decisions
  • re-establish what is true
  • reconstruct the same narrative

Meanwhile:

AI quietly rewrites your story in its own way.

Sometimes correct.
Sometimes confidently wrong.

You are no longer continuing your work.

You are restarting your thinking.


The real divide

There are two types of AI users:

1. Restart thinkers

They treat every new AI window as a blank slate.

2. Continuity thinkers

They preserve context across systems and continue from where they stopped.


OCH is built for the second group

Not to store memory.
Not to automate workflows.
Not to build agents.

But to solve one thing:

Make thinking portable across AI systems.


What OCH does

OCH generates a Context Snapshot:

A small, human-readable artifact containing:

  • what you are working on
  • what you have decided
  • what you explicitly rejected
  • what you should do next

You can carry it across:

  • AI chat windows
  • different models
  • coding agents (Cursor / Claude Code)
  • personal notes

And continue with less re-explaining.


Start here

For the current V1 first-user path:

  1. Start with the practical guide
  2. Review the Snapshot v1 format
  3. Copy the Snapshot generator prompt
  4. Copy the receiver prompt
  5. Record the trial result

Quick manual testing


How it works (V0)

  1. End a session while thinking is still coherent
  2. Generate a Context Snapshot
  3. Review and approve it
  4. Paste into another AI system
  5. Continue from NEXT ACTION

Core principle

AI drafts.
Humans decide.
Context belongs to the user.


Why this matters

AI systems are becoming more powerful.

But human thinking is becoming more fragmented.

We optimize models.

But we lose continuity.

OCH is a small attempt to fix one thing:

Keep thinking alive across system boundaries.


Not trying to solve

OCH is intentionally narrow.

It is NOT:

  • a memory system
  • an AI agent
  • an automation tool
  • a knowledge base

It only solves this

How do you continue thinking without restarting yourself every time you switch systems?


Philosophy

Context does not belong to platforms.

It belongs to the person thinking.

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A small, human-readable context handoff protocol for carrying working context across AI systems.

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