As a Magic action, you can throw this staff so that it lands in an unoccupied space within 10 feet of you, causing the staff to become a Giant Constrictor Snake in that space. The snake is under your control and shares your Initiative count, taking its turn immediately after yours.
On your turn, you can mentally command the snake (no action required) if it is within 60 feet of you and you don’t have the Incapacitated condition. You decide what action the snake takes and where it moves during its turn, or you can issue it a general command, such as to attack your enemies or guard a location. Absent commands from you, the snake defends itself.
As a Bonus Action, you can command the snake to revert to staff form in its current space, and you can’t use the staff's property again for 1 hour. If the snake is reduced to 0 Hit Points, it dies and reverts to its staff form; the staff then shatters and is destroyed. If the snake reverts to staff form before losing all its Hit Points, it regains all of them.
This... is actually a suitable and thoughtful nerf: the 2014 version did not have the hour long cool down on having the snake revert to staff form and then re-emerge. This lead to a LOT of abuse (some of which I might be guilty of myself!) by letting the snake take a ton of damage, reverting it as a bonus and then throwing it and releasing it again as an action, at which point it'd have it's entire 60 HP back again, ready to wreck merry havoc.
It was utterly overpowered as an uncommon item, and this version is much more balanced.
But you can take my 2014 version when you can pry it from my druids cold, dead hands!