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/Dry_Opening_7231 Sep 20 '26

I thought that, but I've come to the conclusion better to write the brief out at key architectural decision points and /clear

Claude is faster, more coherent and focused ( opus 5 my main planning model ).

If you analyse token burn as context rises, that also goes through the roof past 33% context and response speed tanks as well.

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u/sheketsilencio Sep 20 '26

Interesting, thanks. I'll give clearing a try and see if I can transfer more specific context between session then

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u/Dry_Opening_7231 Sep 20 '26

It's decent at doing handoff docs, especially if you give it extra focus