Strategic Compact Skill

Suggests manual /compact at strategic points in your workflow rather than relying on arbitrary auto-compaction.

When to Use

• When running long Salesforce development sessions that approach context limits (200K+ tokens)
• When transitioning between distinct development phases (org exploration -> planning -> implementation)
• When switching between unrelated Salesforce domains (Apex -> LWC -> Flow configuration)
• After completing a major milestone (feature shipped, deployment succeeded) before starting new work
• When responses slow down or become less coherent due to context pressure

Why Strategic Compaction?

Auto-compaction triggers at arbitrary points:

• Often mid-task, losing important context about org structure or governor limits
• No awareness of logical task boundaries
• Can interrupt complex multi-step Salesforce operations (deploy pipeline, test runs)

Strategic compaction at logical boundaries:

• After org exploration, before implementation — Compact metadata/schema context, keep implementation plan
• After completing a feature — Fresh start for next feature
• Before switching domains — Clear Apex context before LWC work

How It Works

The suggest-compact.js script runs on PreToolUse (Edit/Write) and:

1. Tracks tool calls — Counts tool invocations in session
2. Threshold detection — Suggests at configurable threshold (default: 50 calls)
3. Periodic reminders — Reminds every 25 calls after threshold

Compaction Decision Guide

Phase Transition	Compact?	Why
Org exploration -> Planning	Yes	Org metadata is bulky; plan is the distilled output
Planning -> Apex implementation	Yes	Plan is saved to a file; free up context for code
Apex implementation -> LWC work	Yes	Clear Apex context for unrelated frontend work
Apex implementation -> Apex testing	Maybe	Keep if tests reference recent code; compact if switching focus
Debugging -> Next feature	Yes	Debug traces pollute context for unrelated work
Mid-implementation	No	Losing class names, field APIs, and partial state is costly
After a failed deployment	Yes	Clear the dead-end reasoning before trying a new approach
Trigger work -> Flow work	Yes	Different domains with different context needs

What Survives Compaction

Understanding what persists helps you compact with confidence:

Persists	Lost
CLAUDE.md instructions	Intermediate reasoning and analysis
Task list (if saved to a file)	File contents you previously read
Project-level settings and rules	Multi-step conversation context
Git state (commits, branches)	Tool call history and counts
Files on disk	Nuanced user preferences stated verbally
Org metadata on disk	SOQL query results from exploration

Best Practices

1. Compact after planning — Once plan is finalized and saved to a file, compact to start fresh
2. Compact after debugging — Clear error-resolution context before continuing
3. Don't compact mid-implementation — Preserve context for related Apex/LWC changes
4. Read the suggestion — The hook tells you when, you decide if
5. Write before compacting — Save important context (org structure, field APIs) to files or memory before compacting
6. Use /compact with a summary — Add a custom message: /compact Focus on implementing trigger handler next

Salesforce-Specific Tips

• Save org metadata before compacting — Object/field lists, record type IDs, profile names
• Save governor limit findings — If you discovered limit issues, document them first
• Save deployment results — Deployment errors/warnings should be saved before compacting
• Keep test results accessible — Write failing test details to a file before compacting

Token Optimization Patterns

Trigger-Table Lazy Loading

Note: This is an aspirational optimization pattern -- SCC currently loads skills based on frontmatter triggers, not a runtime lazy-loading table.

Instead of loading full skill content at session start, use a trigger table that maps keywords to skill paths. Skills load only when triggered, reducing baseline context by 50%+:

Trigger Keywords	Skill	Load When
"test", "tdd", "coverage"	sf-apex-testing	User mentions testing
"security", "sharing", "crud"	sf-security	Security-related work
"deploy", "scratch org", "ci"	sf-deployment	Deployment context
"soql", "query", "selectivity"	sf-soql-optimization	Query optimization
"trigger", "handler", "fflib"	sf-trigger-frameworks	Trigger development

Context Composition Awareness

Monitor what consumes your context window:

• CLAUDE.md files — Always loaded, keep lean
• Loaded skills — Each skill adds 1-5K tokens; SCC has 58 skills
• Conversation history — Grows with each exchange
• Tool results — File reads, SOQL results, test output add bulk
• Rules — Always-on guidelines consume baseline context

Duplicate Instruction Detection

Common sources of duplicate context in SCC projects:

• Skills that repeat CLAUDE.md instructions
• Multiple skills covering overlapping domains (e.g., security guidance in both sf-security and sf-governor-limits skills)
• Agent descriptions that duplicate skill content

Save-Before-Compact Examples

Before compacting, write critical context to files so it survives:

Save Org Metadata

# Save field list for target object
sf sobject describe --sobject Account --json > .claude/org-context/account-fields.json

# Save record type IDs
sf data query --query "SELECT Id, Name, DeveloperName FROM RecordType WHERE SobjectType = 'Account'" --json > .claude/org-context/record-types.json

Save Investigation Findings

<!-- .claude/session-notes.md — write before compacting -->
## Governor Limit Findings (2026-03-24)
- AccountTriggerHandler.cls line 45: SOQL in loop (CRITICAL)
- OrderService.cls: 3 DML statements could be combined (MEDIUM)
- Coverage: AccountService 82%, OrderService 61% (needs work)

## Deployment Blockers
- Missing field: Account.Risk_Category__c not in target org
- Flow "Auto Case Assignment" references deleted queue

Save Test Results

<!-- .claude/test-results.md -->
## Last Test Run
- 142/145 passing
- Failed: OrderServiceTest.shouldHandleBulkUpdate (NPE at line 89)
- Failed: CaseTriggerTest.shouldEscalateHighPriority (assertion at line 34)
- Failed: IntegrationTest.shouldCallExternalAPI (callout not mocked)
- Coverage: 78% org-wide

Multi-Session Continuity

For work spanning multiple sessions, use compact + session commands:

Session 1: Plan feature
  +-- /save-session -> saves plan, org context, findings
  +-- /compact -> clean slate

Session 2: Implement Apex
  +-- /resume-session -> restores plan context
  +-- [implement Apex classes]
  +-- /save-session -> saves implementation state
  +-- /compact

Session 3: Implement LWC + Deploy
  +-- /resume-session -> restores implementation context
  +-- [build LWC, deploy, verify]

Large Project Handling

For projects with 100K+ lines of code:

• Don't read entire codebase — Use Grep/Glob to find specific files
• Use codemaps — deep-researcher agent creates navigable index without loading full files
• Compact aggressively between features — Each feature is a fresh context
• Save architecture notes to files — Don't rely on conversation memory for class relationships
• Use agents for parallel investigation — Subagents have their own context windows

Approximate Token Costs (as of the current API version per @../_reference/API_VERSIONS.md — may vary with model and encoding)

Content Type	Approximate Tokens	Notes
CLAUDE.md	2-5K	Always loaded
Each rule file	500-2K	All active rules loaded
Each loaded skill	1-5K	Loaded on demand
Apex class (500 lines)	3-5K	When Read tool is used
LWC component (3 files)	2-4K	HTML + JS + CSS
SOQL query result (100 rows)	2-8K	Depends on field count
Test output (full suite)	5-15K	Use --result-format human to reduce
Debug log (1000 lines)	8-15K	Filter with --log-level WARN

Related

• suggest-compact.js hook — Automatic compaction suggestions
• /save-session and /resume-session — State that survives compaction
• sf-debugging skill — Debug context preservation
• learning-engine agent — Extracts patterns before session ends