# [CRITICAL] Auto-compact triggers at 8-12% context making Claude Code unusable

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/5827
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/4878
3. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/5385

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

• If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead
• To prevent auto-closure, add a comment or 👎 this comment

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

@Dimitri-Jacquin thanks for the report. Could you take these steps to help debug this issue:

1. Start a fresh claude code session
2. When the session is close to compact (or when it starts to compact hit esc to cancel)
3. /bug and share the feedback_id here

@sid374 2a25dffe-df60-4067-a50f-f2de17aa0752

UPDATE - Issue appears resolved after session reset

@sid374 Thanks for looking into this. I wanted to provide an update on my situation:

What worked:

• Disabled auto-compact in settings
• Waited for my 5-hour Claude session quota to fully expire
• Started fresh after the session reset

Current status:

• Claude Code is now functioning normally
• Using manual compact instead of auto-compact
• No more premature compaction triggers at 8-12%

Key insight:
It seems like the bug was tied to my Claude session state. Once my 5-hour quota expired and reset, Claude Code started working properly again with auto-compact disabled.

Current workaround:

• Keep auto-compact disabled
• Use manual /compact when needed
• Hopefully this stability continues

Feedback ID: 2a25dffe-df60-4067-a50f-f2de17aa0752

This suggests the issue might be related to session state management between Claude Code and the main Claude service. Worth investigating if others experience similar resolution after session resets.

FR -> Ce commentaire explique clairement votre situation actuelle et pourrait aider d'autres utilisateurs ayant le même problème. Il suggère aussi une piste d'investigation intéressante pour les développeurs concernant la gestion des états de session.

Thanks for sharing the transcripts! We have some fixes in 1.0.85 that should help. Please feel to reopen if you're still seeing issues

Update: The issue had temporarily disappeared but has now returned. The auto-compact bug is once again triggering at 0-6% context usage, making Claude Code v1.0.84 unusable again.

@Dimitri-Jacquin did you try 1.0.85?

Also how are you calculating 0-6%? Can you describe the behavior you're seeing in more detail please?

================================================= Previous Conversation Compacted =================================================
⏺ Compact summary (ctrl+r to expand)
⎿ Read components/notifications/notification-provider.tsx (324 lines)
⎿ Read app/api/v2/stripe/customer-portal/route.ts (93 lines)
⎿ Read app/api/v2/notifications/delete/route.ts (106 lines)
⎿ Todo list read (8 items)
-->Context left until auto-compact: 3%

@Dimitri-Jacquin did you try 1.0.85? Also how are you calculating 0-6%? Can you describe the behavior you're seeing in more detail please?

-->dimitrijacquin@macstudio-de-dimitri web-app % claude --version
1.0.85 (Claude Code)

Compact summary (ctrl+r to expand)
⎿ Read components/notifications/notification-provider.tsx (325 lines)
⎿ Read package.json (96 lines)
⎿ Read app/api/v2/stripe/customer-portal/route.ts (93 lines)
⎿ Read app/api/v2/notifications/delete/route.ts (106 lines)
⎿ Todo list read (12 items)
-->Context left until auto-compact: 0%. --> Game over (100$ plan...)

I am seeing this as well on v1.0.89. Everytime Claude auto-compacts, it resets the compact limit to 4-6% for me. Basically causing it to auto-compact every few file reads/lookups.

Session ID: 8dec1375-d4b0-4f38-b679-83ad1282d743

Same for me on v1.0.89. Auto compacts every so often and forgets what it's doing. This renders it practically unusable

Found a "fix." Not sure how detrimental it is to context awareness, but deleting/renaming the settings.local file in the .claude folder fixed the context issues for me. I am guessing the file just got too large for Claude to be able to effectively read because of all the bash commands it stored away that weren't reusable in most cases.

if you want to YOLO it, you can use "claude --dangerously-skip-permissions" to bypass permission prompts (the ones that when saved to the project, fill up the setting.local.json file and ultimately cause the context issue)

But that is absolute last resort and very dangerous to do. Hence the flag name....

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.