Context Compaction Fidelity

A shorter context is useful only if it preserves the facts needed to finish correctly.

Compaction contract

Before discarding detail, preserve:

• user goals, acceptance criteria, constraints, and explicit non-goals;
• exact identifiers, versions, paths, commands, hashes, names, and external references;
• completed work and the evidence that proved it;
• current failures, unresolved questions, blockers, and hypotheses;
• irreversible actions already taken or still requiring approval;
• next executable steps.

Separate verified facts from inferences. Never convert uncertainty into certainty while summarizing.

After compaction, test fidelity by asking: Could a fresh agent resume without rereading discarded context or repeating completed work? If not, restore the missing state before continuing.