gaia-compact

Gaia Compact

A raw /compact tells the model "summarize everything you remember." What survives that summary is what the model happened to find salient -- which is rarely the same as what the user needs to resume work. This skill replaces that default with a preservation contract: the six categories below are what matter for continuity, and the compact prompt forces the model to retain them with high fidelity.

When this skill fires

Load this skill when the user asks the orchestrator to compact the session. Spanish and English both trigger: "compacta", "orquestador compacta", "oye Gaia compacta", "haz un compact", "compact the session", "compactemos".

What the orchestrator does

The Skill tool cannot invoke /compact directly -- built-in slash commands are not reachable through Skill. The orchestrator reads this skill, builds the combined prompt below, and then invokes /compact <combined_prompt> itself as its next action.

Process

1. Extract any extra preservation instructions the user gave alongside the compact request. Examples:

   • "compacta pero preserva el estado del DB schema"
   • "compacta y no olvides la decisión sobre Tailscale"
   • "compact keeping the failing test output"

   If the user gave no extra instructions, $ARGUMENTS is empty and the base prompt is used as-is.

2. Build the combined prompt by concatenating the base preservation prompt with any extra instructions:

   <BASE_PROMPT>
   
   Additional preservation instructions from this request:
   $ARGUMENTS
   

   If $ARGUMENTS is empty, omit the "Additional preservation instructions" block entirely -- do not leave a dangling header.

3. Before invoking /compact, verify persistence-critical work. If any of the following are in-flight and NOT yet written to disk, surface them to the user and ask whether to persist first:

   • Unsaved changes to MEMORY.md or memory documents under .claude/projects/*/memory/
   • Brief or plan files under .claude/project-context/briefs/ that were drafted but not written
   • Evidence files (T{N}.txt, AC-N.*) from a dispatch whose verification has not been persisted
   • Uncommitted git changes the user asked to commit

   Compaction is lossy by design. Anything only held in the model's context window is gone after /compact.

4. Invoke /compact with the combined prompt. The orchestrator runs this as its own action -- the skill does not and cannot execute it.

5. After /compact returns, briefly confirm to the user what was preserved (the six categories plus any extra instructions they gave).

Base preservation prompt

This is the literal text the orchestrator prepends:

Preserve the following with high fidelity:
1. DECISIONS: Every architectural decision made, including the rationale and alternatives rejected.
2. COMPONENTS: Agent roster with responsibilities, skill assignments, and known gaps identified.
3. OPEN ITEMS: All pending briefs, open questions, and identified gaps -- with their current status.
4. FILE MAP: Absolute paths of every file read, created, or modified, with one-line description.
5. KEY FINDINGS: Bugs, security issues, or design problems surfaced during investigation.
6. NEXT STEPS: The exact next action agreed upon before this compact.
Compress tool outputs, file contents, and intermediate reasoning. Retain conclusions, not process.

Anti-patterns

• Compacting without the preservation prompt -- defaults to a generic summary that drops file paths, approval_ids, and nonces; resuming becomes guesswork.
• Compacting while a T3 approval is in flight -- the approval_id and nonce live in context; after /compact the grant activation can lose its anchor. Resolve approvals first, then compact.
• Ignoring user-provided preservation hints -- if the user says "preserva el DB schema", appending that to $ARGUMENTS is the whole point; dropping it makes the skill a fancy wrapper for the default.
• Compacting with unsaved memory or brief drafts in context -- these are not recoverable from /compact output; warn the user before running.
• Summarizing what was preserved in vague terms -- after compacting, name the six categories explicitly so the user can spot a missing one immediately.