Context Management

Commands for managing conversation history length and token usage.

Comparison

Start Here

Start Here allows you to restart your conversation from a specific point, using that message as the entire conversation history. This is available on:

• Plans - Click "🎯 Start Here" on any plan to use it as your conversation starting point
• Final Assistant messages - Click "🎯 Start Here" on any completed assistant response

This is a form of "opportunistic compaction" - the content is already well-structured, so the operation is instant. You can review the new starting point before the old context is permanently removed, making this the only reversible compaction approach.

/clear - Clear All History

Remove all messages from conversation history.

Syntax

Notes

• Instant deletion of all messages
• Irreversible - all history is permanently removed
• Use when you want to start a completely new conversation

/compact - AI Summarization

Compress conversation history using AI summarization. Replaces the conversation with a compact summary that preserves context.

Syntax

Options

• -t <tokens> - Maximum output tokens for the summary (default: ~2000 words)
• -m <model> - Model to use for compaction (sticky preference). Supports abbreviations like haiku, sonnet, or full model strings

Examples

Basic compaction:

Limit summary size:

Choose compaction model:

Use Haiku for faster, lower-cost compaction. This becomes your default until changed.

Auto-continue with custom message:

After compaction completes, automatically sends "Continue implementing the auth system" as a follow-up message.

Multiline continue message:

Continue messages can span multiple lines for more detailed instructions.

Combine all options:

Combine custom model, token limit, and auto-continue message.

Notes

• Model preference persists globally across workspaces
• Uses the specified model (or workspace model by default) to summarize conversation history
• Preserves actionable context and specific details
• Irreversible - original messages are replaced
• Continue message is sent once after compaction completes (not persisted)

/truncate - Simple Truncation

Remove a percentage of messages from conversation history (from the oldest first).

Syntax

Parameters

• percentage (required) - Percentage of messages to remove (0-100)

Examples

Remove oldest 50% of messages.

Notes

• Simple deletion, no AI involved
• Removes messages from oldest to newest
• About as fast as /clear
• /truncate 100 is equivalent to /clear
• Irreversible - messages are permanently removed

OpenAI Responses API Limitation

⚠️ /truncate does not work with OpenAI models due to the Responses API architecture:

• OpenAI's Responses API stores conversation state server-side
• Manual message deletion via /truncate doesn't affect the server-side state
• Instead, OpenAI models use automatic truncation (truncation: "auto")
• When context exceeds the limit, the API automatically drops messages from the middle of the conversation

Workarounds for OpenAI:

• Use /clear to start a fresh conversation
• Use /compact to intelligently summarize and reduce context
• Rely on automatic truncation (enabled by default)