strategic-compact

name	strategic-compact
description	Suggests manual context compaction at logical intervals to preserve context through task phases rather than arbitrary auto-compaction.
origin	ECC

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

The suggest-compact.sh script runs on PreToolUse (Edit/Write) and:

1. Tracks tool calls — Counts tool invocations in session
2. Threshold detection — Suggests at configurable threshold (default: 50 calls)
3. Periodic reminders — Reminds every 25 calls after threshold

Compaction Decision Guide

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

Persists	Lost
CLAUDE.md instructions	Intermediate reasoning and analysis
TodoWrite task list	File contents you previously read
Memory files	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. Write before compacting — Save important context to files or memory before compacting
5. Use /compact with a summary — /compact Focus on implementing X next