Context Budget Guard

~/.openclaw/skill-state/context-budget-guard/state.yaml

When to Use

• At the start of any long-running session (>30 min expected)
• Before each major task step in a multi-hour workflow
• When

  long-running-task-management

  advances to a new stage

The Process

Step 1: Initialize (Session Start)

session_start

compaction_count: 0

status: monitoring

threshold_pct: 70

Step 2: Check Budget (Before Each Major Step)

• Low (<50%) — continue normally
• Medium (50–70%) — note in state, proceed with caution (avoid loading large files)
• High (>70%) — trigger

  context-window-management

  NOW, before continuing

Step 3: After Compaction

• Increment

  compaction_count

  in state
• Write

  last_compacted_at

  ,

  strategy_used

  (passed from

  context-window-management

  )
• Reset mental estimate to ~20% (post-compaction baseline)

Step 4: Session End

status: idle

session_end

Key Principles

• The 70% threshold is the trigger — earlier is always better than later
• Check budget BEFORE loading large files or running subagents, not after
• If in doubt: compact. A clean context costs less than a confused one.
• Works best paired with

  long-running-task-management

  — check budget at every checkpoint