Handoff used to mean exporting a file and hoping. That never worked well. With AI in the mix, a bad handoff just fails faster: confident-looking code that misses the states that actually matter.
Handoff is a loop, not a static artifact.
What I keep in the loop
- Define intent, not only screens. What is the user trying to finish? What must not change without a conversation?
- Document edge cases and empty states. Happy paths are easy. Day-one and failure paths are where products feel unfinished.
- Pair design tokens with component behavior. Color alone isn't a system. Focus, validation, loading, and disabled rules belong with the visuals.
- Validate in staging before launch. Review the live build together. The Figma file is a proposal.
I work this way on React and Flutter projects alike. Generating a component with Cursor is quick. Agreeing that Spontrec's recording feedback or Hermeneia's insight modes behave correctly under empty and error conditions is the real bar.
Where AI helps and where it doesn't
AI speeds translation from design to code and can scaffold layouts. It doesn't know which interactions are one-offs vs system. It won't catch that real content wraps differently than your sample string. Someone still has to own quality.
Minimum useful handoff
If you're short on time, don't write a novel. Ship:
- Key flows with empty, loading, error, success
- Token or component names that match the codebase where possible
- A 15-minute pairing call on the riskiest interaction
- A shared staging pass before release
That keeps quality up when engineering uses AI, without pretending a PDF ever did the job.