Feature request: Hook for context auto-compact/restoration events

Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Dec 3, 2025 by MikeNikiforos Closed Dec 3, 2025

Problem

When context is auto-compacted mid-task, there's no way for the user or Claude to react to this event. This creates a gap:

  1. Claude is mid-process working on something (e.g., multi-step refactoring)
  2. Context auto-compacts (user sees this happen in the terminal)
  3. Claude continues from the summary, potentially missing critical context
  4. User can't easily interrupt because Claude is mid-task
  5. By the time Claude finishes (5-10 min in some scenarios), user forgets to tell Claude to re-read context
  6. Claude continues with stale/incomplete information

Current Workaround

I've added instructions to my CLAUDE.md that tell Claude to check for the phrase "This session is being continued from a previous conversation" and read session notes if detected. But this is fragile - it depends on Claude reading CLAUDE.md after the restore, and only triggers on the next action, not immediately.

Proposed Solution

Add a new hook type that fires when context is auto-compacted/restored:

{
  "hooks": {
    "ContextRestored": [
      {
        "matcher": "",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "cat .claude/SESSION_*.md | tail -50"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Or alternatively, a system-level option to automatically include certain files after context restoration:

{
  "contextRestoration": {
    "alwaysIncludeFiles": [".claude/SESSION_*.md"]
  }
}

Use Case

I maintain detailed session notes (.claude/SESSION_YYYY-MM-DD.md) that contain:

  • Current state of work
  • Critical context (IPs, credentials, decisions made)
  • What was just completed
  • What needs to happen next

When context compacts, the summary captures some of this but often misses details. Having a hook that automatically feeds session notes back into context after restoration would ensure continuity.

Environment

  • Claude Code version: Latest
  • OS: WSL2 (Ubuntu) on Windows 11

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