Strategic Compact Skill

Suggests manual /compact at strategic points 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, keep plan
• After completing a milestone — Fresh start for next phase
• Before major context shifts — Clear old context before different task

Focus-Aware Compaction (inspired by OpenClaw)

Blind compaction = blind discards. Focus-directed compaction = preserving key information.

Usage: Specify what to preserve when manually compacting.

Scenario: Completed 3 hours of debugging, now starting a new feature
✅ /compact preserve root cause analysis and fix approach, discard trial-and-error debugging
❌ /compact (blind compaction may discard root cause analysis)

Common focus templates:

Scenario	Focus Directive
After debugging	Preserve root cause and fix approach, discard trial-and-error
After planning	Preserve final plan and key decisions, discard alternative discussions
After code review	Preserve items to change, discard confirmed-OK sections
After strategy discussion	Preserve strategic decisions and metrics, discard brainstorming process
After multi-file edits	Preserve which files changed and why, discard file content details

When to Trigger Compaction

Signal	Action
Completed a full milestone	✅ Good time to compact
Switching from exploration to execution	✅ Good time to compact
Debugging complete, starting new feature	✅ Good time to compact
In the middle of multi-step implementation	❌ Do NOT compact
Still analyzing a problem	❌ Do NOT compact
/ctx shows 60-70% consumed	🟡 Consider compacting
/ctx observes ≥80% pressure	Save the current Lane, compact if supported, verify and continue

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

1. Compact with focus — Always specify what to preserve, never compact blindly
2. Write memory before compacting — Save key information to memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md first
3. Never compact mid-task — Maintain complete context during multi-step implementations
4. Pair with /ctx — Use actual observations; ≥80% means save and reassess after compaction, not forced exit. Unknown occupancy remains unknown.

Pre-Compaction Protocol (MUSE — derived from LCM compact:before)

MUST execute in order before compaction:

1. Persist: Write current task progress to memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md
2. Preserve recent instructions: Save recent decisions, corrections and constraints; do not claim the client supports a protected/non-compactable zone unless its actual interface does.
3. Extract key decisions: Scan content about to be compacted, extract key decisions/data to memory
4. Notify user: Inform about upcoming compaction, list what will be preserved

Principle: Persist first, then compact. Never discard information without a backup.

Post-Compaction Injection (MUSE — derived from OpenClaw postCompactionSections)

MUST re-internalize the following after compaction:

1. First 4 lines of CLAUDE.md (7 iron laws + priority chain)
2. Currently [/] in-progress tasks from task.md
3. Today's memory/ snapshot (just written)
4. Any focus-aware specified preservation items

Compaction may omit information. Reconcile the selected role/Lane checkpoint and required evidence after it; do not reload all history or claim memory is lossless.