Compress

When to use

• Compressing specs, plans, tickets, prompts, AGENTS.md, or skill files
• Removing redundancy from instructions before giving them to an agent
• Tightening a document that has grown through repeated edits

Process

1. Choose the target from $ARGUMENTS, a pasted instruction, or the named file.
2. Preserve the target's behavior exactly. Compression is not permission to weaken rules.
3. Cut:
   • restated rules
   • overlapping instructions
   • padding phrases
   • obvious preamble
   • hedging that does not change behavior
   • examples that restate a rule without adding format or edge-case value
4. Keep:
   • actual rules and constraints
   • concrete examples that show a required format or edge case
   • file paths, exact names, identifiers, commands, and schemas
   • instructions that came from previous failures
5. If asked to update a file, replace it with the compressed version. Otherwise return only the compressed instruction.

Verification

• Meaning and behavioral constraints are preserved
• Redundant wording is removed
• Specific names, paths, commands, schemas, and examples still exist where needed
• The result is easier for an agent to follow

Rules

• Return the compressed version only unless the user asks for commentary.
• Prefer bullets for lists of rules.
• Prefer prose for a single connected idea.
• Merge overlapping sections.
• State a general rule and its exception together.
• Do not drop a rule to hit a word count.
• If compression changes likely agent behavior, restore the load-bearing instruction.