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Context reference
The forms and numbers behind the context: the file and its edits, the budget, eviction, the stub, recall and checkpoints.
The story is on Context. This page is the detail.
The file
(context) writes the session's context to context/STORE/SESSION/context.txt under the home and returns its path. Edit it with any file verb, a shell command or Lisp. The first line names the export: keep it. Each message below it is a block under a [[m:NONCE ID ROLE]] line.
| Edit | What the next request reads |
|---|---|
| Keep | The message byte for byte, so it stays cached. |
| Delete | Nothing. A deleted tool block takes its call with it. |
| Rewrite | The edited text. An edited result ends with the line that recalls the original. |
| Note | Text under a [[note]] line, read as the agent's own words. |
| Restore | A removed block's header written back: the original message. |
(context :drop SPANS :keep IDS :note TEXT) makes the same edit without the file. Every tool result ends with its seq, [seq 57].
| Keyword | Takes |
|---|---|
:drop | t, or seqs, ids and (from . to) spans. |
:keep | Seqs held back from the drop. |
:note | A note kept at the end. |
The next model request takes the edit or refuses it and says why, in context.receipt.txt. It refuses an edit whose first line changed, or one made before another edit was taken. The log is never edited: recall still reads every original. Messages before the first change keep the provider's cache.
Budget
The budget is the model's context window. The first source with a number wins.
| Order | Source |
|---|---|
| 1 | NODECODE_CONTEXT_TOKENS |
| 2 | providers.<id>.models[].context_window in config.jsonc |
| 3 | Overrides recorded in the running image |
| 4 | The models.dev cache |
A window no source knows is never evicted ahead of time. A request rejected as too large records a ceiling, and that ceiling is the budget from then on. /context shows the window and what fills it.
Eviction
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Warns at | 85% of the budget, once |
| Evicts | At the next request still over 85% |
| Evicts down to | 50% of the budget |
| Order | Finished turns, oldest first and whole; then the running turn's older rounds |
| Never | The running turn's ask and newest round |
A stub stands where the turns were: [history evicted: seq A–B · N turns · recall: (recall-log :match "text" :before B+1)]. It carries the ;; first line of every evicted cell and the agent's own notes.
/evict [percent | through TURN] evicts by hand (alias /compact, default 50%). The newest turn always stays.
Recall
| Form | Reads |
|---|---|
(recall-log :match "text" :before N :limit 20) | This session's log, oldest first, bodies clipped to 200 characters. :match is SQL LIKE. |
(recall-entry N) | The one event at seq N, whole. |
(recall-search "words") | Every session, newest first. Every word must appear. |
Recall reads the sessions this one forked from, and turns an undo hid.
Checkpoints
| Command | Does |
|---|---|
/tree | Opens the session tree: continue from a turn, or rewind to it. |
/undo | Rewinds the last turn, and its file changes. |
/redo | Returns to the branch the last rewind left. |
/fork | Forks a new session here. |
A rewind deletes nothing. See Sessions.
