Claude Code

Make Claude Compact Earlier: The Setting and the CLAUDE.md Note

Claude Code sends your whole chat with every message. One command makes it summarize the pile earlier, and a short note keeps the facts that matter. The setting, the note, and the one catch

2min read
1prompts to copy
4numbered steps
4sections

In a long Claude Code session, every request carries the whole conversation, old tangents included. Anthropic's cost guide says a one-line question late in a day-long session still draws usage for the entire history.

Here's the one command that makes Claude summarize earlier, the note that protects your key facts, and the catch.

Step 1: set an earlier compact point

  1. In Claude Code, run: /autocompact 200k
  2. Claude now summarizes the conversation once it reaches about 200,000 tokens. Valid sizes run from 100K to 1M.
  3. To go back to the default, run: /autocompact auto
  4. Prefer a settings file? Add "autoCompactWindow": 200000 to ~/.claude/settings.json. For one launch only: claude --autocompact 200k

The default is much later: on models with a native 1M window (Fable, Sonnet 5 and later, Haiku 5.5, Opus 4.7 and later), Claude Code compacts at about 967K tokens.

Keep reading

Free, for an email.

Unlocks 3 more sections, 1 copy-paste prompt, the document version, and every other guide on the site, for free. Enter your email once to keep reading.

45,000+ follow where these guides come from.No spam. Unsubscribe in one click.

Read next

Find the Claude Skills Quietly Eating Your Limit: The Hidden /skill-doctor Command
Every skill you install leaves a short note in Claude's context on every single message, even the ones you never use. Claude Code's /skill-doctor command shows what each skill costs and which ones never get used, so you can turn the dead weight off. How to run it, how to read it, and how to switch skills off
2 min
Stop Claude Code's /compact From Summarizing Away Your Chat
Fast-Jev Compaction, the open-source plugin that frees up context by dropping only old tool output, keeps every word you and Claude wrote. Here is how it decides what goes, and how to install it.
3 min
Keep Using Claude Code After You Hit Your Usage Limit
The one command that keeps Claude Code working at lower priority instead of stopping at your limit, how to turn it on and off, and the catch with your weekly limit.
2 min