Feature request: expose context window usage to hooks and support threshold-based triggers
Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Apr 2, 2026 by tyfong-lbl Closed Apr 5, 2026
Summary
Enable hooks (or a new hook event) to access context window usage metrics and trigger actions at configurable thresholds — for example, automatically saving progress and clearing the context window at 50% usage.
Motivation
Long-running sessions risk losing valuable context when automatic compression kicks in unexpectedly. Users currently have no programmatic way to:
- Detect how full the context window is from a hook or skill
- Trigger memory-saving actions based on a threshold
- Automate graceful context management
This forces manual monitoring via /context and manual invocation of /clear.
Proposed Changes
Any combination of:
- Expose
context_usage_percent(or token counts) in hook input data — even just adding it toUserPromptSubmitorPostToolUseinput would unlock threshold-based logic in user scripts - Add a
ContextThresholdhook event — fires when context usage crosses a configurable percentage (e.g., 50%, 75%)
Use Cases
- Auto-save session progress to memory files before context gets compressed
- Trigger
/clearat a controlled point rather than hitting the limit unexpectedly - Alert the user (via hook stderr) when context is getting large
- Delegate remaining work to subagents when context is nearly full
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