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Rodrigo Uroz 0fe6cf06b2 Compaction: preserve opaque identifiers in summaries (openclaw#25553) thanks @rodrigouroz

Verified:
- pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
- pnpm build
- pnpm check
- pnpm test:macmini

Co-authored-by: rodrigouroz <384037+rodrigouroz@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Tak Hoffman <781889+Takhoffman@users.noreply.github.com>

2026-02-27 08:14:05 -06:00

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Context window + compaction: how OpenClaw keeps sessions under model limits

You want to understand auto-compaction and /compact

You are debugging long sessions hitting context limits

Compaction

Context Window & Compaction

Every model has a context window (max tokens it can see). Long-running chats accumulate messages and tool results; once the window is tight, OpenClaw compacts older history to stay within limits.

What compaction is

Compaction summarizes older conversation into a compact summary entry and keeps recent messages intact. The summary is stored in the session history, so future requests use:

The compaction summary
Recent messages after the compaction point

Compaction persists in the session’s JSONL history.

Configuration

Use the agents.defaults.compaction setting in your openclaw.json to configure compaction behavior (mode, target tokens, etc.). Compaction summarization preserves opaque identifiers by default (identifierPolicy: "strict"). You can override this with identifierPolicy: "off" or provide custom text with identifierPolicy: "custom" and identifierInstructions.

Auto-compaction (default on)

When a session nears or exceeds the model’s context window, OpenClaw triggers auto-compaction and may retry the original request using the compacted context.

You’ll see:

🧹 Auto-compaction complete in verbose mode
/status showing 🧹 Compactions: <count>

Before compaction, OpenClaw can run a silent memory flush turn to store durable notes to disk. See Memory for details and config.

Manual compaction

Use /compact (optionally with instructions) to force a compaction pass:

/compact Focus on decisions and open questions

Context window source

Context window is model-specific. OpenClaw uses the model definition from the configured provider catalog to determine limits.

Compaction vs pruning

Compaction: summarises and persists in JSONL.
Session pruning: trims old tool results only, in-memory, per request.

See /concepts/session-pruning for pruning details.

Tips

Use /compact when sessions feel stale or context is bloated.
Large tool outputs are already truncated; pruning can further reduce tool-result buildup.
If you need a fresh slate, /new or /reset starts a new session id.

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