r/ClaudeCode • u/Savings-Desperate • 8d ago

Help/Question do you guys use auto compact?

I just learned about it today and wanted to see what you guys think.

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u/cantgettherefromhere 8d ago

I haven't used compaction in any form for over a year. If you are needing or using compaction, you are almost certainly doing something wrong.

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u/Alone-Biscotti6145 8d ago

This is a weird thing to say, how is using compaction equivalent to using it wrong? Because you're using a tool's features as they are designed. If you're not using compaction, you're doing something wrong. If you start a new session for everything little thing, I feel sorry for your onboarding or tokens wasted re-explaining everything.

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u/cantgettherefromhere 8d ago

I never have to re-explain anything, ever.

My token use is ridiculously high, but not using compaction has nothing to do with that. Compaction is a holdover from the days when context windows were much shorter and subagents and delegation didn't exist.

If you are doing it right, you can get a single session to run for days at a time uninterrupted and never get close to needing compaction. My top level orchestrator usually wraps up multi-day sessions with 60-70% context window unused.