Passoff

Portable CLI for transferring coding-agent sessions between Claude Code and Codex when one agent hits a limit.

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or newer
• Local Claude Code and/or Codex transcript files on the same machine

Install

From npm:

npm install -g passoff
passoff --help

Or run without a global install:

npx passoff --help

From a local checkout:

npm install -g .

The npm postinstall step auto-installs the bundled passoff skill globally for both agents:

• Claude Code: ~/.claude/skills/passoff
• Codex: ~/.agents/skills/passoff

Retry or inspect the global skill install with:

passoff install-skills
passoff install-skills --dry-run

Set PASSOFF_SKIP_SKILL_INSTALL=1 to skip postinstall skill installation.

Links

• Source: https://github.com/iamjr15/passoff
• Issues: https://github.com/iamjr15/passoff/issues

Commands

passoff ls --from claude
passoff ls --from auto --repo /path/to/repo
passoff find "studio-tinkered-parity" --from claude
passoff inspect "studio-tinkered-parity" --from claude
passoff codex 2
passoff codex "studio-tinkered-parity" --from claude --no-launch
passoff claude codex:019dea31
passoff save --from auto --latest
passoff save --from claude --all
passoff install-skills

Common options:

• --from claude|codex|auto: choose the source transcript store.
• --repo PATH or -C PATH: match sessions for a specific repository.
• --latest: select the newest matching session.
• --json: print machine-readable output for ls, find, and inspect.
• --no-launch: write transfer files without launching the target agent.
• --dry-run: show the launch command without running it.
• --scan-limit N: cap transcript files inspected per source agent.

Human Limit Playbook

When Claude Code hits a usage limit:

passoff ls --from claude
passoff codex 1

The command reads local Claude transcript files and repository state, writes .passoff/current.md, then launches Codex with a short resume prompt. It does not need Claude to answer another message.

When Codex hits a limit and Claude is available:

passoff ls --from codex
passoff claude 1

Selectors

passoff codex 2
passoff codex claude:7aaea880
passoff codex @checkout-bug
passoff codex "studio-tinkered-parity"
passoff codex --latest

If more than one session matches and no selector is provided, the tool lists sessions and exits instead of guessing.

Selectors can also be human-readable Claude resume names or custom titles. Claude Code transcript metadata such as custom-title, agent-name, teamName, slug, last-prompt, and away_summary is indexed automatically. When several sessions share the same title, the CLI ranks substantive sessions above short /clear or local-command stubs.

Search And Inspect

Use find when the user remembers a title or phrase but not the session id:

passoff find "studio-tinkered-parity" --from claude
passoff find "visual parity" --from auto --json

Use inspect before transfer when several close matches exist:

passoff inspect "studio-tinkered-parity" --from claude
passoff inspect claude:7aaea880 --from claude --json

inspect shows aliases, Claude metadata, cwd history, transcript path, score/stub status, recent messages, and recent tools.

Tags

passoff tag claude:7aaea880 checkout-bug
passoff codex @checkout-bug

Tags are stored in .passoff/tags.json in the current repository.

Output

Each transfer writes:

• .passoff/current.md
• .passoff/latest.json
• .passoff/sessions/<agent>-<session>-<timestamp>.md

The transfer file includes source session metadata, aliases, cwd history, recent transcript messages, recent tool activity, git status, diff stat, a capped diff excerpt, and local plan/instruction files.

Performance And Privacy

• Scans newest transcript files first and caps discovery at 1500 files per source agent by default.
• Uses the first JSONL record to skip sessions from other repositories before reading transcript tails.
• Reads only the first line and a bounded tail of transcript files; it does not load full long-running chats.
• Redacts common token, key, password, and bearer-secret patterns before writing transfer markdown.
• Use --scan-limit N if a very old session is outside the default scan window.

Local Development

npm test
npm run check:pack
npm run check:publish
npm install -g .
passoff ls --from claude

npm publish runs the test suite through prepublishOnly. Use npm run check:pack to inspect the tarball contents and npm run check:publish to verify npm publish metadata before publishing.