Agent Skills: Compact Context

[IMPORTANT] Use TaskCreate to break ALL work into small tasks BEFORE starting — including tasks for each file read. This prevents context loss from long files. For simple tasks, AI MUST ATTENTION ask user whether to skip.

Quick Summary

Goal: Compress conversation context to optimize token usage while preserving critical information.

Workflow:

1. Analyze -- Identify essential vs. expendable context
2. Compress -- Remove redundant information, summarize findings
3. Verify -- Ensure critical decisions and progress are preserved

Key Rules:

• Preserve: decisions made, files modified, current task state
• Remove: redundant tool outputs, repeated searches, verbose logs
• Use when context window approaches limits

Be skeptical. Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence percentages (Idea should be more than 80%).

Compact Context

Proactively compress the current conversation context to optimize token usage.

When to Use

• Before starting a new task in a long session
• When working on multiple unrelated features
• At natural workflow checkpoints (after commits, PR creation)
• When context indicator shows high usage

Actions

1. Summarize completed work - What was done, key decisions made
2. Preserve essential context - Active file paths, current task, blockers
3. Clear redundant history - Old exploration, superseded plans
4. Update memory - Save important patterns to .claude/memory/

Best Practices

• Use /compact at natural breakpoints, not mid-task
• After compacting, briefly restate the current objective
• Check that critical file paths are still accessible
• If working on a bug, preserve error messages and stack traces

Context Preservation Checklist

Before compacting, ensure you've saved:

• [ ] Current branch and uncommitted changes status
• [ ] Active file paths being modified
• [ ] Any error messages or stack traces
• [ ] Key decisions and their rationale
• [ ] Pending items from todo list

Example Usage

User: /compact
Claude: Compacting context...

## Session Summary
- Implemented employee export feature
- Fixed validation bug in SaveEmployeeCommand
- Created unit tests for EmployeeHelper

## Active Context
- Branch: feature/employee-export
- Files: Employee.Application/Commands/ExportEmployees/
- Current task: Add pagination to export

## Cleared
- Exploration of unrelated notification code
- Superseded implementation approaches

Ready to continue with pagination implementation.

Closing Reminders

• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION break work into small todo tasks using TaskCreate BEFORE starting
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION search codebase for 3+ similar patterns before creating new code
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION cite file:line evidence for every claim (confidence >80% to act)
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION add a final review todo task to verify work quality