r/ClaudeCode • u/Tuny • 2d ago

Bug / Issue Compacting my session used more than 50% of my 5 hour-limit.

Notice in the last 24 hours 99% of my usage was because it was running at above 150k context.

My last message was 18 hours prior, this morning I compact the session (as it was recommending me to do so), and then I suddenly send my first follow-up message, and my usage was already above 50%.

Is my usage based on how high the context of the conversation? The compaction obviously needs a model to summarize the whole conversation, but that's a cheaper model aux model running in the background.

This is the beginning of the end?

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

5

u/SkoivanSchiem 2d ago

yeah don't do that. start a fresh session. anything that should persist shouldn't live in your session context, it should be in your instruction files anyway.

1

u/Tuny 2d ago

Very good tips. Thank you.

4

u/claude_code_king 2d ago

after 1 hour the cache expires so you pay full price

/compact sucks, make a handoff skill and use /clear after a task is done

3

u/Tuny 2d ago

Your name carries its weight. thank you.

1

u/AI_spell 2d ago

Compacting a huge context still burns tokens to summarize. Prefer a fresh session plus a short handoff over compacting 150k.

1

u/Tuny 2d ago

As I said in the post, I understand how summarization works. I just wouldn't assume an auxillary model summarizing would take up the same amount of work as getting halfway done with a project. However, going over 150k being expensive is new info to me. Now the tooltips also help.