Context fills extremely fast, forced compact at ~70% instead of 99%
Status Fixed / completed
Maintainer reply None cached
Workaround ✓ Mentioned in thread ↓
Activity 14 comments · opened Jan 17, 2026 · closed Feb 11, 2026
Description
For the past several days, the context window fills up much faster than before. The session gets blocked at approximately 70% capacity and forces a compact, whereas previously it worked smoothly until ~99%.
This issue was slightly improved a few days ago but is still present.
Impact
- Implementation work is nearly impossible due to constant compacting
- Session becomes unusable very quickly
- Even with auto-compact disabled, manual compact is forced at ~70%
Steps to reproduce
- Start a new session with Opus 4.5
- Work normally (reading files, making edits, implementing features)
- Context reaches ~70%
- Session blocks and demands compact - cannot continue without compacting
Expected behavior
- Context should be usable until ~99% before requiring compact
- With auto-compact disabled, user should have control over when to compact
Actual behavior
- Session blocks at ~70% and forces compact
- Context fills up much faster than it did previously
- Makes normal development workflow very difficult
Environment
- Model: Opus 4.5 (claude-opus-4-5-20251101)
- Claude Code: Latest version
- OS: Linux
Additional context
This behavior change seems to have started recently. The same workflows that previously allowed full sessions now require multiple compacts.
14 Comments
Found 3 possible duplicate issues:
This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.
🤖 Generated with Claude Code
I got the same.... they arent addressing this. I got offered a refund and to close my account. Anthropic is falling apart I think.
Same issue.
Despite /context showing 15-20% remaining capacity at ~160k tokens, I'm forced to /clear or /compact prematurely. This has been reported a few times now and hasn't been addressed within the last versions (2.1.6 - 2.1.11).
This significantly impacts my workflow in large codebases, where initial planning alone consumes roughly half the available context window. Clearing context post-approval isn't viable, it degrades Claude's comprehension of the approved plan as observed in my own usage patterns.
This limitation is becoming a blocking issue that's pushing me to evaluate alternative tooling for my development workflow.
Sounds like the same issue as #18386. A workaround is to go into settings and choose stable channel, then exit and run
claude updateto downgrade to 2.1.2I can confirm this bug.
I had ~30% of context left, but Claude forced stopped informing that /compact or /clear is needed to continue.
Same here; tried to figure out using env vars but couldnt achieve. This goes on at least 5-6 days.
Worst part is context window fills out suddenly during an implementation; before it was context-aware and handle this cosrectly.
https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/18802#issuecomment-3763923772 - this solution did not helped. Same behaviour on Stable channel - ~30% of context free - Claude Code asks for compact/clear
Same issue here. It's been happening since version 2.1.7. My workaround is to switch to the stable channel (so it doesn't auto-update), uninstall the latest version, and install 2.1.6 specifically.
This claude code is a joke:
▐▛███▜▌ Claude Code v2.1.12
For those who willing to switch to stable 2.1.2 use -
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@2.1.2Same issue
I switched to version 2.1.2, this version runs without the problems.
I am also getting this, at 85% in only lets me /compact or /clear and is not letting me continue on up to 99% context!?
v2.1.12
@Asses13 this has been fixed in the meantime. Please close the issue, thanks!
This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.