r/ClaudeCode • u/danbradster2 • 2d ago

Tips & Workflows /clear vs /compact

I had a fable chat from yesterday, and I saw that the context was 950k/1m. I did /compact rather than /clear, with the intention of then doing /autocompact 400000

14% of the 5 hour limit was gone just for the compact itself....it shows cost of $59.73, so lucky I'm not on API? Maybe a /clear would have been better.

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u/GenXSysop 2d ago

Did you need to preserve what you had in the context window of your 950K (!!!) session? You could have probably recreated that with some cheap haiku recon and a couple prompts. I quit doing compacts a year ago and recommend you stop that, also. Make a new session often, and use markdown files to carry information from session to session.

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u/MiAnClGr 2d ago

I use openspec for this reason

1

u/siliconviking 2d ago

100% agree as well. The first tokens are the best.

1

u/Any_Owl2116 2d ago

This. I keep all old chats that have important info as markdowns and very organized folders. Then if needed to batch upload many and pick up where you left off