Save a handover

Ask for the save

In the conversation, say: "soil save" · or in plain language, "save a Soil handover for this project." That's the whole command, and it makes a personal, standalone snapshot · complete on its own, free. The save is auto-named from the work; to name it yourself, put the name in the command: soil save #my-thread saves under your own name. Every named save is kept · save the same name again and Soil preserves both as distinct handovers (#my-thread-001, -002, …); it never overwrites. To save into a shared project you belong to · where your work accumulates over time · say soil save @project (with the project's name), or soil save #auth-flow @project to name the thread as you save. @ says where, # says which, in either order.

Behind that one command, the model fetches Soil's extraction recipe and fills it from the live conversation: the architecture, the locked decisions, what's built vs planned, what's next, the risks. It follows Soil's rule: carry the meaning, never the secret. A configured API key is described as existing and where, never reproduced. Soil always produces one comprehensive, standalone handover: written so a brand-new model · same project or a cold handoff to another person, model, or provider · can restore the work with only the handover, assuming no shared context. As part of the save, the model also answers a few situational working-style questions · recorded raw with the handover and shown when it is loaded, never scored.

Soil verifies

Soil verifies the extraction: extract → verify → drift check. Either it saves, or it refuses:

• Saved. A complete, high-confidence extraction that passes the drift check is saved in this one call, with a load code and an honest readiness band (Strong).
• Refused. Nothing is stored and no load code is issued. The refusal names what to change: the specific field that is over its ceiling, the exact missing inputs or contradictions ("Needs work · missing: …"), or the unsafe descriptor to remove. A borderline handover instead gets a drift-check pass: re-read it cold ("could a cold model continue with only this?") and confirm.

Correct only what it named

A refusal does not mean starting over. For a length, structure, gap, or drift refusal Soil holds the attempt it just refused for 15 minutes and hands the model a one-time retry handle, so the follow-up save carries only the corrected field. Everything you did not change lands byte-identically, and the whole chain re-runs on the merged result. Your model does this for you · you never type the handle.

That changes what you should do:

• Too long / invalid / unsafe field · say nothing. The model shortens or fixes the named field and resends. Answering in conversation does not help here, and asking for a fresh save is the expensive move: it re-extracts the whole thread.
• Needs work · missing: … · this is the one where you do speak up, if the gap is something only you know. Answer it in conversation, and the model sends the corrected sections against the held draft.
• Unsafe content · nothing is held (holding it would store the very secret the refusal exists to keep out), so that one retry resends in full, without the value.

Better an honest "not yet" than a handover you can't trust · and the correction should cost one field, not the whole thread.