What travels in each direction of a handoff contract?#
From person to machine: the outcome, the scope, permitted actions, stop conditions and what must not change. That is a context transfer, the territory of context engineering. From machine to person: the decision needed, what changed, what did not, and the evidence with its gaps. That is a comprehension transfer, the territory of comprehension engineering. Medicine shows what structure buys: hospitals adopting the I-PASS handoff programme saw 23% fewer medical errors with no increase in handoff time.
Why must an approval in a handoff contract name its scope?#
Because silence is not permission. An approval that does not state what it covers, and which version, will later be read as blanket consent. Naming the version costs almost nothing and makes the approval expire when the approved thing changes.