Strategic Compact Skill
Suggests manual /compact at strategic points in your workflow rather than relying on arbitrary auto-compaction.
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
How It Works
The suggest-compact.sh script runs on PreToolUse (Edit/Write) and:
- Tracks tool calls - Counts tool invocations in session
- Threshold detection - Suggests at configurable threshold (default: 50 calls)
- Periodic reminders - Reminds every 25 calls after threshold
Hook Setup
Add to your ~/.claude/settings.json:
{
"hooks": {
"PreToolUse": [{
"matcher": "tool == \"Edit\" || tool == \"Write\"",
"hooks": [{
"type": "command",
"command": "~/.claude/skills/strategic-compact/suggest-compact.sh"
}]
}]
}
}Configuration
Environment variables:
COMPACT_THRESHOLD- Tool calls before first suggestion (default: 50)
Best Practices
- Compact after planning - Once plan is finalized, compact to start fresh
- Compact after debugging - Clear error-resolution context before continuing
- Don't compact mid-implementation - Preserve context for related changes
- Read the suggestion - The hook tells you when, you decide if
Related
- The Longform Guide - Token optimization section
- Memory persistence hooks - For state that survives compaction