article feature

Context compaction: summaries that keep the kernel alive

Compaction summarizes older messages when context nears a threshold, keeping recent history and the persistent kernel state available. It is not a completion signal: goals, heartbeats, autonomous continuations, and running children continue. Overflow compaction can retry an oversized prompt after summarization.

v v0.7.1reviewed 2026-08-09evidence code-derivedsources S012, S010, S008cutoff 2026-08-09
Features

Pinned repository file/line or test referenced in the audit.

Threshold compaction

Compaction summarizes older messages when context nears a threshold, keeping recent history and the persistent kernel state available. It is not a completion signal: goals, heartbeats, autonomous continuations, and running children continue. Overflow compaction can retry an oversized prompt after summarization.

  • S012 supports the route's current claim set.
  • S010 supports the route's current claim set.
  • S008 supports the route's current claim set.

Kernel persistence

Compaction summarizes older messages when context nears a threshold, keeping recent history and the persistent kernel state available. It is not a completion signal: goals, heartbeats, autonomous continuations, and running children continue. Overflow compaction can retry an oversized prompt after summarization.

  • S012 supports the route's current claim set.
  • S010 supports the route's current claim set.
  • S008 supports the route's current claim set.

Overflow retry

Compaction summarizes older messages when context nears a threshold, keeping recent history and the persistent kernel state available. It is not a completion signal: goals, heartbeats, autonomous continuations, and running children continue. Overflow compaction can retry an oversized prompt after summarization.

  • S012 supports the route's current claim set.
  • S010 supports the route's current claim set.
  • S008 supports the route's current claim set.

Transcript summaries

Compaction summarizes older messages when context nears a threshold, keeping recent history and the persistent kernel state available. It is not a completion signal: goals, heartbeats, autonomous continuations, and running children continue. Overflow compaction can retry an oversized prompt after summarization.

  • S012 supports the route's current claim set.
  • S010 supports the route's current claim set.
  • S008 supports the route's current claim set.

What this does not mean

This feature or concept does not imply a sandbox, a guarantee of success, or a claim that the harness is superior in every scenario. It only means the documented behavior exists in v0.7.1.