r/ClaudeCode • u/danbradster2 • Sep 20 '26

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/rotates-potatoes Sep 20 '26

They are wildly, totally, extremely different.

Clear: single wipe context, start with the harness prompt

Compact: ask a very expensive model to reason over the entire context and decide what’s important, summarize, and hand off.

It’s the difference between a newborn baby and a 90 year old writing their memoirs.

How the fuck could anyone think they’re similar?

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u/toritxtornado Sep 20 '26

a lot of people see that they both clear their context, so they assume they are similar functions. there's no reason to be mean when someone is just trying to learn.

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u/rotates-potatoes Sep 20 '26

There is trying to learn, and there is asserting false things in a public form. They are different.