Strategic Compact

Techniques for optimizing Claude Code's context window usage.

Context Window Budget

Claude Code loads several sources into context at session start:

The remaining context budget is for conversation, code, and tool results.

CLAUDE.md Optimization

Size Guidelines

60-100 lines  → Optimal (loads fast, leaves room for code)
100-150 lines → Acceptable (for complex projects)
150+ lines    → Too large (move details to skills or docs)

What Belongs in CLAUDE.md

✓ Stack and language versions
✓ Build/test/deploy commands
✓ Key directory structure
✓ Critical gotchas (non-obvious behaviors)
✓ Project-specific conventions

What Does NOT Belong in CLAUDE.md

✗ Language tutorials or syntax guides    → Use skills
✗ General best practices                 → Use rules
✗ Long code examples                     → Use skills
✗ Documentation that exists elsewhere    → Link to it
✗ Change history                         → Use CHANGELOG.md

Token-Efficient Writing

# Bad (verbose): 45 tokens
## Testing
To run the tests for this project, you should use the following command
which will discover and execute all test files:
`pytest tests/ -v`

# Good (concise): 12 tokens
## Commands
- **Test**: `pytest tests/ -v`

Skill Organization

When to Create a Skill vs. Inline in CLAUDE.md

Skill Loading Strategy

Skills are loaded on demand. Organize so that:

1. •Frequently used skills have clear, searchable names
2. •Related patterns are grouped in one skill (not scattered)
3. •Each skill is self-contained (no cross-skill dependencies)

Tool Budget Management

MCP tools consume context tokens. Fewer active tools = more room for code.

Optimization Steps

1. •Audit — List all configured MCP servers and tools
2. •Measure — Count total tools across all servers
3. •Prune — Disable tools you haven't used in 2+ weeks
4. •Group — Use one multi-purpose tool over many single-purpose ones

Conversation Efficiency

Reduce Round Trips

Bad:  "Read file A" → result → "Read file B" → result → "Now edit both"
Good: "Read file A and file B" → results → "Edit both"

Batch Independent Operations

Launch parallel operations when results don't depend on each other:

✓ Read 3 files simultaneously
✓ Run lint + type-check + test in parallel
✓ Search for pattern across multiple directories at once

Avoid Context Pollution

✗ Pasting entire file contents into chat when a path reference suffices
✗ Asking Claude to "explain this code" without specifying what's unclear
✗ Requesting verbose output when a summary would work

Large Project Strategies

Monorepo Navigation

1. Use Glob to find files by pattern (not ls -R)
2. Use Grep to search content (not reading files sequentially)
3. Delegate exploration to subagents (preserves main context)
4. Focus on one package/module per task

Context Recovery After Compaction

When a conversation is compacted (summarized to save space):

1. •Re-read CLAUDE.md to restore project context
2. •Re-read the specific file(s) you're working on
3. •Check git status for current change state
4. •Continue from the task summary, not from scratch

Checklist

• • CLAUDE.md under 150 lines / 2,000 tokens
• • Token count documented in CLAUDE.md header comment
• • Patterns moved to skills, not inlined in CLAUDE.md
• • MCP tool count under 40 active tools
• • Parallel tool calls used where possible
• • Subagents used for exploration (preserves main context)
• • Rules are concise (under 500 tokens each)