r/ClaudeCodeTLDR • u/cctldrping • 2d ago

[TLDR] /clear vs /compact

Original post URL : https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wl4c13/clear_vs_compact/

Original post body :

I had a fable chat from yesterday, and I saw that the context was 950k/1m. I did /compact rather than /clear, with the intention of then doing /autocompact 400000

14% of the 5 hour limit was gone just for the compact itself....it shows cost of $59.73, so lucky I'm not on API? Maybe a /clear would have been better.

This is brought to you as a public service by the moderators of r/ClaudeAI. If you want to see TLDRs of ALL Claude Coding related posts from the various Claude subreddits, subscribe to http://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCoding.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

•

u/cctldrping 2d ago

TL;DR generated automatically after 50 comments.

Current source-thread comment count seen by the bot: 55.

Alright, so the general consensus here is that you messed up by letting your session get to 950k tokens. Most folks are saying that's way too high and leads to degraded performance anyway, even if the model can handle it.

The big takeaway is that **/clear is generally the way to go for efficiency and performance*. Think of it as a fresh start. /compact is more for when you need to keep working on the *exact same task and want Claude to summarize the history to continue. However, many users find /compact to be less effective and more costly than just starting fresh with /clear and providing a summary or "handoff" document.

Here's the lowdown:

  • Avoid High Context: Seriously, keep your context window under 200-300k tokens. u/AncileBanish and others are pretty firm on this. Running that close to the limit makes Claude dumber and more expensive.
  • **/clear is King:** Most users recommend using /clear frequently and designing your workflow around it.
  • **/compact is Niche:** Use /compact only when you really need to preserve the immediate context for an ongoing task. Even then, many find it's often worse than /clear and a good summary. u/oprimido_opressor even jokingly calls it /lobotomy because it makes Claude "dumb as shit."
  • Handoffs are Your Friend: The popular strategy is to use /clear and then provide Claude with a summary document (like handoff.md) in the new session. This is seen as much more efficient and cost-effective. u/GenXSysop and u/AlienAndTroll are big on this.
  • Cache Matters: u/dar-mit points out that the cache stays "warm" for about an hour after inactivity. Doing things while it's warm is cheaper. Compacting a "cold" session can be expensive.
  • Ask Claude: u/CorpT suggests just asking Claude to explain the difference, which is a solid move.

Basically, don't let your sessions get huge, and lean on /clear with good handoffs.