Strategic Compact

This hooks into Claude Code's PreToolUse events and watches two signals: total context tokens and tool call counts. When you hit 160k tokens (or 250k on a 1M window) or 50 tool calls, it suggests running /compact manually instead of letting auto-compaction fire mid-task. The idea is sound: compact after you finish planning but before implementation, or after debugging is done, not when you're 30 tool calls deep into a refactor. It reads the session transcript to calculate real context size, which is smarter than just counting tool invocations. The guide on what survives compaction (TodoWrite, memory files, git state) versus what doesn't (conversation context, file contents you read earlier) is the most useful part here.

skills.sh installs: 6K
GitHub stars: 300.3K
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

View on GitHub

Install

$ npx -y skills add affaan-m/ecc --skill strategic-compact --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Strategic Compact Skill

Suggests manual /compact at strategic points in your workflow rather than relying on arbitrary auto-compaction.

When to Activate

Running long sessions that approach context limits (200K+ tokens)
Working on multi-phase tasks (research → plan → implement → test)
Switching between unrelated tasks within the same session
After completing a major milestone and starting new work
When responses slow down or become less coherent (context pressure)

Why Strategic Compaction?

Auto-compaction triggers at arbitrary points:

Often mid-task, losing important context
No awareness of logical task boundaries
Can interrupt complex multi-step operations

Strategic compaction at logical boundaries:

After exploration, before execution — Compact research context, keep implementation plan
After completing a milestone — Fresh start for next phase
Before major context shifts — Clear exploration context before different task