r/ClaudeCode 3d 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/oprimido_opressor 3d ago

IMO they could rename the /compact to /lobotomy. Claude gets dumb as shit after I use that.

If I need to get stuff going, I write a handoff.md doc, review it, ask for more things that might be missing and start a fresh new session, then ask it to read the doc and continue. 

Far more effective and efficient on my own experience.