context-management

Context Management Skill

Trigger

Use during long sessions, multi-step tasks, or when Claude's responses start degrading in quality.

The Insight

From Anthropic's Claude Code best practices: "Regularly reset context between tasks to prevent irrelevant conversation and file contents from degrading performance."

Why Context Matters

• Claude has limited context window
• Old, irrelevant content crowds out useful information
• Accumulated context from failed approaches confuses new attempts
• Fresh context = better responses

Techniques

1. Use /clear Between Tasks

After completing a task, before starting a new one:

/clear

This resets the conversation while keeping:

• CLAUDE.md instructions
• Project context
• Tool permissions

When to clear:

• Switching to unrelated task
• After a complex debugging session
• When responses feel "confused"
• Before important implementations

2. Checklists for Large Tasks

For migrations, bulk fixes, or multi-file changes:

## Migration Checklist

### Completed
- [x] Update User model
- [x] Update User service
- [x] Update User controller

### In Progress
- [ ] Update User tests ← CURRENT

### Remaining
- [ ] Update API documentation
- [ ] Update client SDK
- [ ] Run full test suite

Have Claude maintain this checklist:

• Update after each step
• Verify completion before proceeding
• Track what's done vs remaining

3. Course Correction Tools

Escape to interrupt:

• Press Escape once to stop current generation
• Useful when Claude is going down wrong path

Double-tap Escape to edit:

• Press Escape twice to edit your previous prompt
• Explore alternate directions without losing context

Request undo:

Undo the last change to user-service.ts

4. Subagents for Investigation

Early in complex tasks, use subagents to investigate details:

Use a subagent to research how error handling is done in this codebase.
Report back the patterns found.

Benefits:

• Preserves main conversation context
• Subagent does deep investigation
• Main context gets summarized findings

5. Explicit Context Boundaries

Tell Claude what's relevant and what isn't:

Forget about the authentication changes we discussed earlier.
Focus only on the new payment integration.
The relevant files are:
- src/payments/
- src/api/checkout.ts

Signs You Need to Manage Context

Symptom	Solution
Claude references old, abandoned approaches	/clear
Responses getting slower	/clear or reduce file reads
Claude confused about current state	Summarize current state explicitly
Repeating the same mistakes	Clear and re-explain requirements
Losing track of multi-step task	Use checklist

Checklist Template for Large Tasks

## Task: [Migration/Refactor/Bulk Fix Name]

### Overview
[Brief description of the full task]

### Progress Tracking

#### Phase 1: [Name]
- [ ] Step 1.1
- [ ] Step 1.2
- [ ] Step 1.3

#### Phase 2: [Name]
- [ ] Step 2.1
- [ ] Step 2.2

#### Phase 3: [Name]
- [ ] Step 3.1
- [ ] Step 3.2

### Current Focus
[Which item is being worked on NOW]

### Blocked Items
[Items waiting on something]

### Verification
- [ ] All tests pass
- [ ] Manual verification complete
- [ ] Ready for review

Anti-Patterns

Don't:

• Keep adding to context indefinitely
• Assume Claude remembers everything from 50 messages ago
• Debug the same issue repeatedly without clearing
• Mix multiple unrelated tasks in one session

Do:

• Clear between distinct tasks
• Summarize context when resuming
• Use checklists for tracking
• Interrupt early when going off track