strategic-compact

name	strategic-compact
tier	2
description	Enforces Law 5 (Reflect After Every Session) of the 7 Laws of AI Agent Discipline at phase boundaries. Suggests manual context compaction at logical intervals to preserve context through task phases rather than arbitrary auto-compaction.
origin	continuous-improvement
user-invocable	false

Strategic Compact Skill

Suggests manual /compact at strategic points in your workflow rather than relying on arbitrary auto-compaction.

When to Activate

• Running long sessions that approach context limits (200K+ tokens)
• Working on multi-phase tasks (research → plan → implement → test)
• Switching between unrelated tasks within the same session
• After completing a major milestone and starting new work
• When responses slow down or become less coherent (context pressure)

Why Strategic Compaction?

Auto-compaction triggers at arbitrary points:

• Often mid-task, losing important context
• No awareness of logical task boundaries
• Can interrupt complex multi-step operations

Strategic compaction at logical boundaries:

• After exploration, before execution — Compact research context, keep implementation plan
• After completing a milestone — Fresh start for next phase
• Before major context shifts — Clear exploration context before different task

How It Works

This skill is a manual phase-boundary checklist, not a bundled runtime hook. Use it when planning or reviewing a long session:

1. Name the current phase — research, planning, implementation, testing, debugging, release, or handoff.
2. Check the next transition — decide whether the next phase needs fresh context or the current context is still load-bearing.
3. Preserve state first — write the plan, todo list, findings, or handoff note that must survive compaction.
4. Compact only at a boundary — if compaction helps, run /compact with a specific summary for the next phase.
5. Resume from durable artifacts — after compaction, re-read the plan/files instead of relying on lost conversation context.

Runtime Boundary

The current plugin does not ship strategic-compact PreToolUse automation or a threshold script. Treat compaction as an operator/agent decision: this skill gives the decision guide, while Claude Code's native /compact command performs the actual compaction.

Compaction Decision Guide

Use this table to decide when to compact:

Phase Transition	Compact?	Why
Research → Planning	Yes	Research context is bulky; plan is the distilled output
Planning → Implementation	Yes	Plan is in TodoWrite or a file; free up context for code
Implementation → Testing	Maybe	Keep if tests reference recent code; compact if switching focus
Debugging → Next feature	Yes	Debug traces pollute context for unrelated work
Mid-implementation	No	Losing variable names, file paths, and partial state is costly
After a failed approach	Yes	Clear the dead-end reasoning before trying a new approach

What Survives Compaction

Understanding what persists helps you compact with confidence:

Persists	Lost
Agent instructions (from CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md)	Intermediate reasoning and analysis
TodoWrite task list	File contents you previously read
Memory files (~/.claude/memory/)	Multi-step conversation context
Git state (commits, branches)	Tool call history and counts
Files on disk	Nuanced user preferences stated verbally

Best Practices

1. Compact after planning — Once plan is finalized in TodoWrite, compact to start fresh
2. Compact after debugging — Clear error-resolution context before continuing
3. Don't compact mid-implementation — Preserve context for related changes
4. Use the checklist — The phase table helps decide when; you still decide if
5. Write before compacting — Save important context to files or memory before compacting
6. Use /compact with a summary — Add a custom message: /compact Focus on implementing auth middleware next

Related

• The Longform Guide — Token optimization section
• Memory persistence hooks — For state that survives compaction
• continuous-learning skill — Extracts patterns before session ends