Context Optimization Techniques

Context optimization extends the effective capacity of limited context windows through compression, masking, caching, and partitioning, applied with measurement discipline. The techniques below are ordered by impact and risk.

When to Activate

• Context budgets or token costs constrain task complexity
• Observation masking can replace verbose tool outputs with retrievable references
• Prefix or KV-cache hit rate needs improvement
• Retrieval scoping can reduce irrelevant loaded context
• Context partitioning can extend effective capacity across agents
• Budget triggers are needed for masking, compaction, or partitioning
• Agent quality drops as context grows, or output is wrong or irrelevant for no obvious reason (diagnose mode)

Modes