| name | ds-project-compact |
| description | Compact the .project/ memory files — archive spent decisions and finished roadmap sections, keep the live files to what still governs. Loss-free and approval-gated. |
| disable-model-invocation | true |
Compact the .project/ memory so the live files stay small and current while nothing is lost.
When invoked, sweep .project/ for material that has stopped governing and move it to a dated archive, leaving each live file as the current contract. The principle is live stays, spent moves, essence promotes: an active decision stays in DECISIONS.md; a superseded or expired one moves to the archive (its residual truth, if any, re-recorded as a fresh active decision); a finished roadmap section moves out of PLAN.md; ## Now is never touched. Run it when DECISIONS.md/PLAN.md have grown enough to cost tokens or to let stale entries keep steering. The counterpart to /ds-project-checkpoint, which grows these files; compact is what trims them.
Process
- If
.project/ is absent, say so and stop — there is nothing to compact.
- Classify each
DECISIONS.md entry as one of:
- active — still describes a current contract or constraint. Stays in
DECISIONS.md.
- superseded — a later decision replaced it. Archive it; if it still carries residual truth the replacement doesn't state, re-record that as a fresh active decision.
- expired — described a one-time choice already carried out, no longer governing anything. Archive it.
- Classify
PLAN.md ## Roadmap sections. A section whose tasks are all complete ([x]) moves to the archive. ## Now is never modified. A section with open tasks stays.
- Offer stale scratch files for deletion. If
handoff.md or EXPLORE.md exists and is stale (older than PLAN.md, or its work is done), offer to delete it — durable findings should already have been routed to DECISIONS.md/PROJECT.md by checkpoint, so the file itself is disposable.
- Get per-item approval. Show each classification and each archive move one at a time and wait for the nod before writing — same model as checkpoint. Honor a batch approval ("archive them all"). Nothing is written without approval.
- Move spent material to the archive. Append it to
.project/archive/<file>-<date>.md (e.g. DECISIONS-2026-07-12.md), append-only, plain Markdown. Then remove the archived entries/sections from the live file. Every archived item stays readable in the archive — compact never deletes decision content.
- Promote essence only on approval. If an archived entry distills to a standing constraint that belongs in the map, propose it as a single additive line to
PROJECT.md (the additive-only rule /ds-project-checkpoint uses) — never rewrite the map, and only with approval.
- Report what moved where, and confirm the live files now hold only what still governs.
Rules
- Loss-free. The union of the live files and the archive contains every pre-compact decision entry. Compact relocates; it never discards.
## Now is off-limits. Compact only touches ## Roadmap sections and the decision log — current state is checkpoint's, not compact's.- Approval-gated. Every classification and every reader-affecting write is approved per item (batch approval honored). Default to keeping an entry live when its status is unclear — err toward not archiving.
- Archive is write-only memory.
.project/archive/ is append-only and is never read by /ds-project-resume — it exists for a human who wants the history, not for orientation.
- Owned files stay owned.
SPEC.md is never touched (flag it stale if a decision moved past it); PROJECT.md gets additive constraint promotions only, with approval.
Output
A list of what was archived (decisions by classification, roadmap sections), the archive file paths written, any PROJECT.md promotion made, any scratch file deleted, and a one-line confirmation that the live files are compacted and nothing was lost.
