Continue, Review, Handoff, Time Machine: Choosing the Right AI Context Goal

Same Context, Different Purposes

You have a snapshot of your development context. Now what?

The same context can serve very different purposes:

• Continuing where you left off
• Getting a critical code review
• Onboarding a teammate
• Understanding what happened last week
• **Generating project documentation**

Each purpose needs a different prompt structure. That's what goals provide. In RL4 v2.0, goals work both in the Wizard UI and via MCP (`run_snapshot` with a goal parameter).

The Five Goals

1. Continue Goal

When to use: Resuming work, switching models, starting a new day

What it produces:

Based on your context:
- Current state: Authentication 80% complete
- Immediate next steps:
1. Implement refresh token rotation
2. Add error handling for expired tokens
3. Write integration tests
- Blockers to resolve: CORS config for refresh endpoint

Best for:

• Morning startup after context loss
• Switching from Cursor to Claude
• Picking up after interruption
• Long-running projects

Example prompt:

[Your snapshot]

Goal: Continue

I want to resume development. What should I focus on next?

2. Review Goal

When to use: Critical audit, finding issues, quality check

What it produces:

CODE REVIEW FINDINGS:

[HIGH] Security: JWT secret hardcoded
Location: src/auth/config.ts:14
Evidence: D3 mentions "temporary secret for dev"
Fix: Move to environment variable

[MEDIUM] Performance: N+1 query in user loader
Location: src/api/users.ts:45
Evidence: Discussed in messages 34-38
Fix: Use DataLoader or batch query

[LOW] Style: Inconsistent error handling
Location: Multiple files
Evidence: C2 requires consistent error shapes
Fix: Standardize on ErrorResponse type

Best for:

• Before merging important PRs
• Security audits
• Architecture reviews
• Finding what you missed

Example prompt:

[Your snapshot]

Goal: Review

Give me a critical review. What issues should I fix before shipping?

3. Handoff Goal

When to use: Onboarding, sharing context, team transitions

What it produces:

DEVELOPER HANDOFF PACKAGE

PROJECT: Authentication Module

CONTEXT FOR NEW DEVELOPER:
You're joining a Next.js project with Supabase backend.
Authentication is 80% complete using JWT tokens.

KEY DECISIONS TO RESPECT:
[D1] JWT over sessions (see rationale below)
[D4] Refresh rotation required (security req)

SETUP:
1. Clone repo: git clone ...
2. Copy .env.example to .env
3. Add SUPABASE_URL and SUPABASE_KEY
4. Run: npm install && npm run dev

YOUR FIRST TASK:
Implement the refresh token endpoint.
- Related files: src/auth/refresh.ts
- Related decisions: D4, D5
- Ask @alice if blocked

Best for:

• New team member onboarding
• Handoff before vacation
• Cross-team collaboration
• Async context sharing

Example prompt:

[Your snapshot]

Goal: Handoff

A new developer is joining. Prepare a handoff package with
everything they need to start contributing.

4. Time Machine Goal

When to use: Understanding history, investigating issues, learning from past

What it produces:

DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE: Authentication Module

DAY 1 (2026-02-01):
- Started with session-based auth
- Created initial login flow
- Files: src/auth/login.ts, src/api/auth.ts

DAY 2 (2026-02-02):
- Discovered offline requirement
- Session approach won't work offline
- Decision: Pivot to JWT (D1)
- Files: Refactored auth.ts, added jwt.ts

DAY 3 (2026-02-03):
- Implemented JWT generation
- Added refresh token support
- Hit CORS issues with refresh endpoint
- Files: jwt.ts, refresh.ts, middleware.ts

DAY 4 (2026-02-04):
- Fixed CORS via server-side cookies
- Security review suggested rotation
- Implemented token rotation (D4)
- Current state: 80% complete

Best for:

• "Why did we do it this way?"
• Bug investigation timelines
• Project retrospectives
• Learning from past decisions

Example prompt:

[Your snapshot]

Goal: Time Machine

Reconstruct what happened day-by-day. I need to understand
the journey from start to current state.

5. Document Goal

When to use: Generating project docs, READMEs, architecture docs, API docs from your development history

What it produces:

PROJECT DOCUMENTATION: Authentication Module

OVERVIEW
JWT-based authentication system for a Next.js + Supabase
application. Supports offline mode via token rotation.

ARCHITECTURE
- Auth flow: Login → JWT issue → Refresh rotation → Logout
- Storage: HttpOnly cookies (access + refresh tokens)
- Middleware: src/middleware.ts validates on every request

KEY DECISIONS
- JWT over sessions: Enables offline mode (Decision D1)
- Token rotation: Required for security compliance (Decision D4)
- Server-side cookies: Solves CORS issues with refresh (Day 4)

API REFERENCE
POST /api/auth/login    → Issues access + refresh tokens
POST /api/auth/refresh  → Rotates refresh token
POST /api/auth/logout   → Clears token cookies

SETUP GUIDE
1. Set SUPABASE_URL and SUPABASE_KEY in .env
2. Run migrations: npx prisma migrate dev
3. Start: npm run dev

Best for:

• Auto-generating project documentation from evidence
• Creating architecture decision records (ADRs)
• Producing onboarding docs without manual writing
• Sprint documentation

Example prompt:

[Your snapshot]

Goal: Document

Generate comprehensive documentation for this module based
on the development history and decisions made.

Using Goals via MCP

In RL4 v2.0, you can trigger goals directly from the chat via MCP:

Use run_snapshot to capture context with the Continue goal

The snapshot follows the Phase Protocol automatically:

1. **Phase 1** — Activity summary as resume point
2. **Phase 2** — Append to `.rl4/timeline.md`
3. **Phase 2b** — Update `.cursor/rules/Rl4-Skills.mdc` (DO/DON'T/CONSTRAINTS)
4. **Phase 3** — Call `finalize_snapshot` to clean up

You can also use the Wizard UI (`Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P` → "RL4: Open Wizard") to visually select a goal, time range, and target provider.

Choosing the Right Goal

| Situation | Goal | Why |

|-----------|------|-----|

| Monday morning startup | Continue | Pick up where you left off |

| Before PR merge | Review | Catch issues |

| New team member | Handoff | Context transfer |

| Bug introduced last week | Time Machine | Find the change |

| Switching to Claude Code | Continue | Resume context |

| Architecture discussion | Review | Critical analysis |

| Going on vacation | Handoff | Enable async work |

| Quarterly retro | Time Machine | Understand journey |

| Need project docs | Document | Auto-generate from evidence |

| Sprint retrospective | Document + Time Machine | Full record |

Combining Goals

Sometimes you need multiple perspectives:

For thorough handoff:

1. Generate with Handoff goal (context transfer)
2. Generate with Review goal (known issues)
3. Combine both in onboarding doc

For incident investigation:

1. Generate with Time Machine (what happened when)
2. Generate with Review (what went wrong)
3. Use both for postmortem

For major milestone:

1. Time Machine (document the journey)
2. Review (document the quality)
3. Handoff (enable future developers)

Tips for Each Goal

Continue tips:

• Ask for 3-5 concrete next steps
• Include any blockers to resolve
• Request priority ordering

Review tips:

• Ask for severity levels
• Request file locations
• Include evidence from context

Handoff tips:

• Include setup instructions
• Define first task clearly
• List who to ask for help

Time Machine tips:

• Request day-by-day breakdown
• Ask for decision points
• Include file changes per period

Goals in Practice

Here's a real workflow using goals:

Friday 5pm: Generate snapshot with default goal

Monday 9am: Use Continue goal to resume

Tuesday: Use Review goal before PR

Wednesday: Use Handoff goal for new dev

Friday: Use Time Machine for sprint retro

The same snapshot serves all purposes. Goals adapt the output.

Custom Goals

Beyond the four standard goals, you can craft custom prompts:

[Your snapshot]

Custom Goal: Architecture Diagram

Based on this context, create a text-based architecture diagram
showing the main components and their relationships.

The snapshot provides context; your prompt provides direction.

Start Using Goals

Your context can do more than just continue AI session. Make it AI code review context, context handoff AI, auto-generated docs, and time machine development. Create your first snapshotCreate your first snapshot/cursor/blog/create-first-ai-snapshot-tutorial to get started — both via the Wizard UI and MCP chat commands. Then learn to switch LLMslearn to switch LLMs/cursor/blog/switch-llm-without-losing-context with full context.

**Try RL4 Snapshot**Try RL4 Snapshot/cursor/form — generate context that works for any purpose. Five goals, unlimited applications, available via MCP or Wizard.

Same context. Multiple superpowers.