Context Management
Commands for managing conversation history length and token usage.
Comparison
| Approach | /clear | /truncate | /compact | Start Here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | Instant | Instant | Slower (uses AI) | Instant |
| Context Preservation | None | Temporal | Intelligent | Intelligent |
| Cost | Free | Free | Uses API tokens | Free |
| Reversible | No | No | No | Yes |
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 context management approach (use Cmd+Z/Ctrl+Z to undo).
/clear - Clear All History
Remove all messages from conversation history.
Syntax
/clear
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
/compact [-t <tokens>]
[continue message on subsequent lines]
Options
-t <tokens>- Maximum output tokens for the summary (default: ~2000 words)
Examples
Basic compaction:
/compact
Limit summary size:
/compact -t 5000
Auto-continue with custom message:
/compact
Continue implementing the auth system
After compaction completes, automatically sends "Continue implementing the auth system" as a follow-up message.
Multiline continue message:
/compact
Now let's refactor the middleware to use the new auth context.
Make sure to add tests for the error cases.
Continue messages can span multiple lines for more detailed instructions.
Combine token limit and auto-continue:
/compact -t 3000
Keep working on the feature
Notes
- Uses the selected LLM 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
/truncate <percentage>
Parameters
percentage(required) - Percentage of messages to remove (0-100)
Examples
/truncate 50
Remove oldest 50% of messages.
Notes
- Simple deletion, no AI involved
- Removes messages from oldest to newest
- About as fast as
/clear /truncate 100is 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
/truncatedoesn'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
/clearto start a fresh conversation - Use
/compactto intelligently summarize and reduce context - Rely on automatic truncation (enabled by default)