Make Your Claude Helper Agents Compact Their Own Chat Early
A Claude Code helper (subagent) keeps everything it reads, and every new step sends that pile again. The one line that makes it compact earlier, the number to use, and the catch that makes it silently do nothing
A helper agent in Claude Code (a subagent) works in its own chat. Everything it reads stays in that chat, and each new step sends the whole pile again. When the pile gets big, the helper compacts it into a summary. The setting below lets you choose that size yourself.
Here's the one line, where it goes, and the mistake to avoid.
Step 1: update Claude Code
- The field arrived in Claude Code 2.1.296. Update Claude Code, then run claude --version to check.
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