{
  "context_concept": {
    "id": "ctx_context_editing_what",
    "name": "What context editing / compaction is",
    "category": "context_editing",
    "description": "Context editing (sometimes called compaction) is the general practice of programmatically trimming, summarizing, or removing older or less-relevant content from a conversation's context so that a long-running session can continue without exceeding the context window.",
    "how_it_works": "A common approach: once context usage crosses a threshold, older tool results or conversation turns are summarized into a shorter form (or dropped entirely if no longer relevant) and replaced in place, freeing budget for new turns while preserving the gist of what came before.",
    "source_note": "General mechanism description; no single canonical Anthropic doc for this exact term was cited verbatim this session, so this row is phrased generally rather than quoting a specific API field or parameter name.",
    "created_at": "2026-07-02 08:27:09",
    "cite_as": "https://subagentcontext.com/api/context-concepts/ctx_context_editing_what"
  }
}