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context compaction
also conversation compaction or automatic context compaction
Definition of context compaction
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: the process of replacing part of a long AI conversation or agent trajectory with a shorter representation of its important facts, decisions, and state so the task can continue within a context window
- Context compaction preserved the coding agent's plan while removing thousands of tokens of old tool output.
- The harness triggered conversation compaction after a completed step rather than waiting for the context window to overflow.
Two meanings, one word
In everyday English
Compaction is the act of pressing or condensing something into a smaller space.
In AI
The process of replacing part of a long AI conversation or agent trajectory with a shorter representation of its important facts, decisions, and state so the task can…
Origin & history
Context compaction developed from long-conversation summarization and memory management. It became a named agent-platform feature as long-running AI workflows began spanning multiple context windows and providers added explicit compaction objects, endpoints, or harness behavior for carrying compressed state into later requests.
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Cite this entry
"Context compaction." AI Dictionary, Dadgogo, https://dadgogo.com/dictionary/context-compaction/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.