The template
Copy this into your own docs and use it as is. Eight fields, in the order a reader checks them.
HANDOVER Job: <what was delivered, in one line> Steps taken: <each step, with the record or receipt for it> Sources checked: <what each claim rests on> Decisions: <what was decided, and by whom> Open items: <what is not done yet> Not checked: <what nobody verified> Acceptance: <pending / accepted / flagged, by whom, when> Chain: <the handover this one continues, if any>
Two fields do the heavy lifting and are the two most templates skip. Not checked forces the gaps into the open while they are still cheap to fix. Acceptance turns the end of the job into a recorded decision instead of a fading thread of replies. A template without those two produces documents that read complete and settle nothing.
The same template, filled by a real job
From a two-AI job accepted on October 18, 2026
Job: a research and drafting job run across two AIs. Steps taken: ten recorded steps in the first session, each with its verifiable receipt, then the finishing steps in the second. Decisions: the second AI continued from the first handover rather than restarting, on the record. Acceptance: accepted by the holder of the client link, 2026-10-18T11:12:31Z, release hint ok_to_release. Chain: the finished handover at 25555933 points back to its first hop at 5e47dc93. Open the links and every field above is sitting there as data, not as prose someone typed about the job afterward.
Where a static template breaks
- It is written after the fact. Steps get merged, small failures get rounded off, and the order of events drifts toward the order that sounds best.
- No line of it can be checked. The client can believe the steps field or doubt it, and those are the only two options a document offers.
- Acceptance lives somewhere else. The template says pending, the email thread says looks good, and three weeks later nobody can produce the moment the work was approved.
- It freezes a moving job. Recurring work outgrows a static document in a week; the template gets copied forward with stale fields nobody re-reads.
None of this is a discipline problem. It is what paper does. The fix is not a better template, it is a template whose fields are the work's own record.
The live version: the template is the record
Run the job through Zambo tools, in whichever AI you already use, and each call leaves a verifiable receipt as it happens. The handover gathers the session into the same eight fields: steps are the recorded calls themselves, sources ride with the steps that used them, the chain field links each handover to the one it continues, and the client fills the acceptance field by deciding on the page, accept or flag, with the decision and its time saved. For work that repeats, a series keeps one growing handover per job instead of a fresh document every round: see recurring AI work, one proof link.
The template above stays free forever, and the public handover page with the client's accept or flag is free too. Sending client work with a private link, your branding, and the approval record as PDF and JSON is the pass: $0.99 for a day of deliveries, or the Zambo Pass at $29 a month for every job. Sealing a job so its dispute pack can be produced is a paid step too, covered by the same Day Pass or Pass. Either way, the next handover you send can be the record itself instead of a story about it.
Questions, answered
What should an AI handover template include?
Eight fields. Job: what was delivered, in one line. Steps taken: each step with the record or receipt for it, not a summary of the steps. Sources checked: what each claim rests on. Decisions: what was decided and by whom. Open items: what is not done yet. Not checked: what nobody verified, stated plainly. Acceptance: pending, accepted, or flagged, with who decided and when. And the chain: which earlier handover this one continues, if the job passed through more than one AI or more than one session. A template missing the not checked or acceptance fields produces documents that read complete and settle nothing.
Can I just fill in the template as a document?
Yes, and for small jobs it beats sending nothing. Know what it is, though: a document you filled in after the work is a claim about the work, written by the person who did it. The steps can be rounded, the gaps can be softened, and the client has no way to check any line of it. The live version of the same template removes the gap: the steps are the recorded calls themselves, each carrying a verifiable receipt, and the acceptance field is filled by the client's own recorded decision, not by your recollection of it.
How does the live template handle a job that spans two AIs?
The second AI continues from the first handover, and its filled template becomes the next link in a chain. The chain field on each handover points back to the one before it, so a reader starts at the final delivery and walks back to the first step of the first session. One job, one chain, however many AIs or sittings it took.
What goes in the not checked field?
Everything the work claims that nobody verified: figures taken from a source without a second source, steps whose output was accepted on sight, parts of the job run outside the recorded tools. Writing it feels like a confession and works like the opposite. A handover that names its own gaps is the one a client can rely on for everything else, because the line between checked and unchecked is drawn by the record, not discovered later by the client.
Is the template free to use?
The template on this page is yours to copy and use forever, free. Running the live version, where the fields fill themselves from the recorded work and the client decides on the page, is the Zambo handover: the public page and the accept or flag decision are free, and a $0.99 Day Pass or the $29 a month Zambo Pass adds the private link, your branding, and the approval record as PDF and JSON.