Feature request: auto-handoff when context utilization exceeds threshold
Status Open
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 0 comments · opened Jul 22, 2026
Problem
LLM accuracy degrades in long contexts (anchoring, instruction dilution, confabulation over re-checking). Currently I manually watch the context % in the status bar and run /end-chat → new session when it gets too high. This should be automatable.
Proposed Solution
One or more of the following:
- New hook event
onContextThreshold— fires when context utilization crosses a configurable % (e.g. 50%). The hook could then trigger/end-chator a handoff.
- Expose
CLAUDE_CONTEXT_PERCENTas an env var in all hook invocations (especiallyStop), so a hook script can detect the threshold and act on it.
- A hook action for session handoff — something like
{"action": "end_session", "handoff_prompt": "continue from .claude/progress/"}that gracefully ends the current session and spawns a new one with a continuation prompt.
Use Case
I've been manually doing this workflow for a while:
- Watch context % in status bar
- When it passes ~50%, run
/end-chat(which snapshots progress) - Start a new session with "continue from
.claude/progress/"
This works but is manual and easy to forget. Automating it would keep sessions in the "fresh context" sweet spot without user intervention.
Why This Matters
- Context compression helps but doesn't fully prevent mid-context degradation
- Users who run long coding sessions (refactors, debugging, multi-file changes) are most affected
- The progress/handoff infrastructure already exists (
/end-chat,.claude/progress/) — this just needs a trigger mechanism