strategic-compact

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

Strategic Compact

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
• 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

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 / AGENTS.md instructions	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. Write before compacting -- Save important context to files or memory before compacting
5. Use /compact with a summary -- Add a custom message: /compact Focus on implementing indirect offsets next

Rust-Specific Considerations

• After reading large source modules (the evaluator and parser submodule trees can pull hundreds of lines into context across many files), compact before implementing
• After running cargo test / cargo nextest run with verbose output, compact if moving to a different module
• After architecture review or exploration, compact before starting refactoring work