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0003. Context Boundaries Separate Active Context from Transcript History

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Status

Accepted

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Context

Mux needs two ways to start a new active conversation context without treating all persisted transcript history the same way. Compaction summarizes earlier history into provider-visible content, while /clear --soft should preserve earlier transcript history but keep it out of future provider requests.

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Decision

Mux will model both compaction and context reset as kinds of Context Boundary. A Compaction Boundary carries a provider-visible summary of earlier transcript history. A Context Reset Boundary is visible transcript structure but is provider-invisible: it preserves earlier Transcript History while starting a new Active Conversation Context. /clear remains a destructive Hard Clear. /clear --soft performs a Context Reset, clearing agent carryover state and creating a Context Reset Boundary only when the current context window contains provider-eligible messages. Repeated or empty context resets are no-op successes.

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Consequences

  • Provider request assembly must use Context Boundaries to select the Active Conversation Context, then exclude provider-invisible boundaries before model conversion.
  • Transcript display and export may include history above a Context Reset Boundary, but the agent must not receive that history or a synthetic note that the reset occurred.
  • Persisted boundary metadata should distinguish boundary kinds instead of representing context resets as fake compaction summaries.