Context Management

Context indicators

Inspect /context for current capacity and the largest consumers. Compact when earlier details are no longer needed, and start fresh when the task changes. Percentage thresholds can be personal reminders; they do not establish a universal loss of reasoning quality.

Context Sources (by priority)

1. ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md       Global rules
2. ./CLAUDE.md               Project rules (root)
3. subfolder/CLAUDE.md       Local rules (cumulative)
4. .claude/rules/*.md        Unscoped rules at startup; paths rules when relevant
5. @file                     Explicit inline import (in session)

Management commands

/compact        # Summarize earlier context; reduction varies
/clear          # Start a fresh context; saved sessions may be resumed
/usage          # Inspect usage and plan limits
/context        # Detailed context state

Adding context intelligently

# In the prompt
@src/auth.ts Look at this function

# Via CLAUDE.md (persistent)
Always read package.json before working on deps.

# Via .claude/rules/ (auto-loaded at startup)
Rules scoped by path (paths:) or global

Strategies by scenario

Long session (refactor): Make checkpoints at meaningful task boundaries. Save important decisions in CLAUDE.md.

Complex debugging: Provide only the relevant files with @file. Avoid loading the entire project at once.

Multi-file: Ask Claude to delegate through the Agent tool. --agent instead chooses the main session agent.

What consumes the most

Optimizing CLAUDE.md

# Good: short and actionable rules
- Always use TypeScript strict mode
- Prefer pnpm over npm

# Bad: long narrative context
We have been working on this project since 2023
and the team decided after many debates to...

Common Anti-patterns

Do not paste large JSON or raw logs into the prompt. Use a temporary file and @file instead. Do not ignore context warnings: inspect what occupies the context and preserve decisions before compaction.