goose/documentation/docs/guides/smart-context-management.md

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Smart Context Management	22	Smart Context Management

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When working with Large Language Models (LLMs), there are limits to how much conversation history they can process at once. Goose provides smart context management features to help you maintain productive sessions even when reaching these limits. Here are the key concepts:

• Context Length: The amount of conversation history the LLM can consider
• Context Limit: The maximum number of tokens the model can process
• Context Management: How Goose handles conversations approaching these limits

Smart Context Management Features

When a conversation reaches the context limit, Goose offers different ways to handle it:

Feature	Description	Best For	Impact
Summarization	Condenses conversation while preserving key points	Long, complex conversations	Maintains most context
Truncation	Removes oldest messages to make room	Simple, linear conversations	Loses old context
Clear	Starts fresh while keeping session active	New direction in conversation	Loses all context

Using Smart Context Management

When you reach the context limit in Goose Desktop:

1. Goose will automatically start summarizing the conversation to make room.
2. You'll see a message that says "Preparing summary...", followed by "Session summarized."
3. Once complete, you'll have the option to "View or edit summary."
4. You can then continue the session with the summarized context in place.

:::note In Goose Desktop, context management is handled automatically.
You won’t see options to clear or truncate — Goose always uses summarization when the context limit is reached. :::

When you reach the context limit in the CLI, you'll see a prompt like this:

◇  The model's context length is maxed out. You will need to reduce the # msgs. Do you want to?
│  ○ Clear Session   
│  ○ Truncate Message
// highlight-start
│  ● Summarize Session
// highlight-end

final_summary: [A summary of your conversation will appear here]

Context maxed out
--------------------------------------------------
Goose summarized messages for you.

After choosing an option and the context is managed, you can continue your conversation in the same session.