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:

1. •Tracks tool calls - Counts tool invocations in session
2. •Threshold detection - Suggests at configurable threshold (default: 50 calls)
3. •Periodic reminders - Reminds every 25 calls after threshold

Configuration

Environment variables:

• •COMPACT_THRESHOLD - Tool calls before first suggestion (default: 50)

Best Practices

1. •Compact after planning - Once plan is finalized, 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