[BUG] /context command output appends to conversation history, causing immediate context inflation (~5k+ tokens)
Preflight Checklist
- [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
- [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
- [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code
What's Wrong?
When checking system stats using the /context command, the CLI agent appends the detailed diagnostic text output (including listed MCP tools, memory file paths, and built-in skills) directly into the message history thread. Because LLM execution is stateless, subsequent turns must send this entire generated output block back to the API model. This results in an immediate, compounding token tax just for inspecting state.
What Should Happen?
Suggested resolution:
Telemetry commands like /context or /mcp should ideally write their UI/diagnostic output directly to the local terminal buffer without appending that generated output text to the active conversation history payload (Messages), preserving the user's available context window for actual development.
Error Messages/Logs
Steps to Reproduce
Steps to reproduce:
- Run /context in an active session. Note the token count under Messages.
- Immediately run /context a second time without any other commands or code modifications.
- Observe that Messages usage jumps significantly (in this example, an immediate increase of 5.1k tokens), and available Free space drops accordingly.
Claude Model
Opus
Is this a regression?
I don't know
Last Working Version
_No response_
Claude Code Version
v2.1.148
Platform
Anthropic API
Operating System
Windows
Terminal/Shell
Windows Terminal
Additional Information
_No response_
5 Comments
Found 1 possible duplicate issue:
This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.
🤖 Generated with Claude Code
While this is tracking the same architectural area as #49335, that issue is framed as a long-term feature request. I am filing this explicitly as a Bug Report / Resource Leak.
As the issue states, running local telemetry macro commands like /context injects thousands of static UI tokens directly into the active session history payload. This forces subsequent requests to upload that massive static text block back to the API, immediately burning through user usage quotas and context windows. Local diagnostic utilities should write to stdout out-of-band rather than polluting the conversation state. This is an active bug causing resource inflation, not a feature request.
@LostBeard same root cause as #49335 (tumes, 2026-04-16) —
/release-notesand/contextboth bleed into conversation history. Worth closing this one as duplicate and 👍-ing the existing thread; tumes's report has more detail on the/release-notescursor-position angle that compounds the cost.Closing as a duplicate of #49335 to consolidate tracking under the main thread.
Dropping a final note here for the fix context: While #49335 highlights the /release-notes cursor angle, the critical failure behavior to watch out for during the refactor is the absolute lack of token isolation for local macro utilities like /context.
Local environment diagnostics should stream directly to stdout out-of-band. Moving forward, allowing any purely local diagnostic command to append thousands of static UI tokens to the persistent active conversation payload creates an immediate resource leak that rapidly exhausts user API usage quotas and context windows on subsequent turns. Moving over to 👍 the main thread.
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