A baton is a curated continuation note for ONE work line (topic) in ONE repo.\nIt lives at <vault>/.takeoff/<repo-slug>/<topic>.md, is git-ignored, and is\nconsumed by a later session. A repo may hold several batons at once — one per\nwork line. Batons are independent of the Raw session dump (which SessionEnd\nwrites automatically). Do NOT commit them, distill them, broadcast them, index\nthem with cortex-vec, or log them to log.md.
Legacy layout: <vault>/.takeoff/<repo-slug>.md (single-baton era, no topic\nkey). Legacy batons still list, resume, and clear (via --legacy), and are\nretired to the new layout on their next hand-off. Never create new ones.
The repo slug and git-safety are handled by takeoff.sh, bundled in this plugin\nat hooks/scripts/takeoff.sh. In every mode below, FIRST set TK to that helper,\nresolved relative to THIS skill's base directory.
Claude Code announces that base directory when it loads the skill. Use exactly\nthe path it announced, verbatim — do not assume, reconstruct, or hard-code any\ninstall layout; the marketplace, plugin name, and version all appear in real\npaths and all of them change. The only stable fact is the relative one:\ntakeoff.sh sits two levels up from the skill's base directory.
TK=\"<the skill base dir Claude Code announced>/../../hooks/scripts/takeoff.sh\"\ntest -f \"$TK\" || { echo \"cortex: takeoff.sh not found at $TK\" >&2; exit 1; }\nDo NOT use claude plugin root (no such subcommand) or $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT\n(unset for skill-run bash).
Every bash \"$TK\" … call takes an EXPLICIT cwd argument — there is no $PWD\nfallback (a drifted shell cwd once deleted the wrong repo's baton). Resolve\nthe repo root ONCE per mode and reuse it verbatim in every call:
cwd=\"$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)\"\nIf your shell may have cd'ed to another repo earlier in the session, resolve\nfrom a path you KNOW belongs to this repo (e.g. a file you have been editing)\ninstead of trusting the shell's current directory.
\nDetermined by the command argument:
\n| Argument | \nMode | \n
|---|---|
(none) or <topic> | \ncreate — write/overwrite one work line's baton | \n
resume [topic] | \nresume — load a baton (do not delete) | \n
done [topic] | \ndone — clear a baton (soft-delete to trash) | \n
/cortexes:takeoff [topic])Set TK, resolve cwd, then survey the existing work lines:
bash \"$TK\" list \"$cwd\"\nOutput: one baton per line, topic<TAB>summary<TAB>path, newest first.
Decide the topic — kebab-case [a-z0-9-], max 64 chars, not\nresume/done/legacy:
Run the preflight (git-safety; also derives the slug):
\nbash \"$TK\" prepare \"$cwd\" \"<topic>\"\nOutput is TWO lines: line 1 = baton_path, line 2 = workdir. If it\nexits non-zero, STOP and relay the message — do not write anything.\n(Exit 2 = no vault / no repo; exit 3 = .takeoff/ not git-ignored;\nexit 64 = invalid topic.)
Curate the current session into a hand-off. Content is free-form — write\nwhatever genuinely lets a fresh session continue without re-deriving\ncontext. Typically worth capturing: the goal, what's done so far, the\nimmediate next step, key files and locations (path:line), open questions,\nand gotchas. Omit anything not useful; do not pad to a template.
Compose one summary line (used verbatim as the SessionStart menu preview):\na single sentence naming the work line and the next step.
Write the baton to baton_path with the Write tool. workdir is line 2\nof the prepare output, verbatim — do NOT re-derive it yourself:
---\nrepo: <slug>\ntopic: <topic>\nworkdir: <line 2 of prepare output>\ncreated: <YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS>\nsummary: <one sentence: this work line / next step>\n---\n<free-form curation body>\nIf a baton already exists for this (repo, topic), this overwrites it (one\nactive baton per work line, new replaces old).
\nIf this work line previously lived in the legacy single-baton file (you\nresumed from topic legacy, or list shows a legacy entry that is this\nsame line), retire it now that the new-format baton exists:
bash \"$TK\" clear \"$cwd\" --legacy\nConfirm to the user: baton written to <baton_path>, topic <topic>,\nnot committed.
resume [topic], or chosen from the SessionStart menu)TK, resolve cwd, run bash \"$TK\" list \"$cwd\".Read the baton in full (path from the list output) and adopt it as\ncontinuation context. REMEMBER the resumed topic for the rest of the\nsession — it is the default target of a later create or done.done [topic])Set TK, resolve cwd. Determine the target: the explicit topic if\ngiven, else the topic this session resumed. Neither exists → REFUSE to\nguess: run bash \"$TK\" list \"$cwd\", show it, and ask the user to name\nthe target.
Clear it (use --legacy in place of the topic when the target is the\nlegacy baton):
bash \"$TK\" clear \"$cwd\" \"<topic>\"\nExit 4 = the baton belongs to a different working directory (its\nworkdir does not match this repo's toplevel). Relay both paths to the\nuser and let THEM decide — never retry with --force on your own.\nExit 5 = no such baton; re-run list and re-check the target.
Confirm to the user: the baton was moved to the trash path printed by the\ncommand (recoverable for 30 days, then pruned).
\ndone is the explicit \"this work line is finished\" exit — the baton is\nsoft-deleted into <vault>/.takeoff/.trash/ and pruned after 30 days.resume never clears anything.