context-management.md

Context Management

Long-running agents can hit input token ceilings fast. Set contextStrategy on AgentConfig to control how the conversation shrinks as it grows:

const agent: AgentConfig = {
  name: 'long-runner',
  model: 'claude-sonnet-4-6',
  // Pick one:
  contextStrategy: { type: 'sliding-window', maxTurns: 20 },
  // contextStrategy: { type: 'summarize', maxTokens: 80_000, summaryModel: 'claude-haiku-4-5' },
  // contextStrategy: { type: 'compact', maxTokens: 100_000, preserveRecentTurns: 4 },
  // contextStrategy: { type: 'custom', compress: (messages, estimatedTokens) => ... },
}

Strategy	When to reach for it
sliding-window	Cheapest. Keep the last N turns, drop the rest.
summarize	Send old turns to a summary model; keep the summary in place of the originals.
compact	Rule-based: truncate large assistant text blocks and tool results, keep recent turns intact. No extra LLM call.
custom	Supply your own compress(messages, estimatedTokens) function.

Pairs well with compressToolResults and maxToolOutputChars.