strategic-compact

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

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 task list 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
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 task list, 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. Read the suggestion -- The hook tells you when, you 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

Token Optimization Patterns

Trigger-Table Lazy Loading

Instead of loading full skill content at session start, use a trigger table that maps keywords to skill paths. Skills load only when triggered, reducing baseline context by 50%+.

Context Composition Awareness

Monitor what's consuming your context window:

• CLAUDE.md files -- Always loaded, keep lean
• Loaded skills -- Each skill adds 1-5K tokens
• Conversation history -- Grows with each exchange
• Tool results -- File reads, search results add bulk

Duplicate Instruction Detection

Common sources of duplicate context:

• Same rules in both global and project rules
• Skills that repeat CLAUDE.md instructions
• Multiple skills covering overlapping domains