> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cowagent.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Short-term Memory

> Conversation context — message management, compression strategies, and context operations

Conversation context is the Agent's short-term memory, containing all messages in the current session (user input, Agent replies, tool calls and results). Proper context management is critical for the Agent's reasoning quality and cost control.

## Context Structure

Each conversation turn consists of:

```
User message → Agent thinking → Tool call → Tool result → ... → Agent final reply
```

A single turn may include multiple tool calls (controlled by `agent_max_steps`). All tool calls and results are retained in context until compressed or trimmed.

## Key Configuration

| Parameter | Description | Default |
| - | - | - |
| `agent_max_context_tokens` | Maximum context token budget | `64000` |
| `agent_max_context_turns` | Maximum conversation turns in context | `30` |
| `agent_max_steps` | Maximum decision steps per turn (tool call count) | `30` |
| Configurable via `config.json` or the `/config` chat command. | | |

## Compression Strategy

When context exceeds limits, the system automatically compresses to free space. The process has multiple stages:

### 1. Tool Result Truncation

Before each decision loop, the system checks tool call results in historical turns. Results exceeding **20,000 characters** are truncated, keeping only the beginning and end with a truncation notice. Current turn results are not affected.

### 2. Turn Trimming

When conversation turns exceed `agent_max_context_turns`:

* The **oldest half** of complete turns is trimmed (preserving tool call chain integrity)
* Trimmed messages are summarized by LLM and **written to the daily memory file**
* Once the LLM summary is ready, it is also **injected into the first user message** of the retained context, helping the model maintain conversational continuity
* Summary injection runs asynchronously in the background and takes effect from the next turn onward

### 3. Token Budget Trimming

After turn trimming, if tokens still exceed the budget:

* **Fewer than 5 turns**: All turns undergo **text compression** — each turn keeps only the first user text and last Agent reply, removing intermediate tool call chains
* **5 or more turns**: The **first half** of turns is trimmed again, with discarded content written to memory and a context summary injected

### 4. Overflow Emergency Handling

When the model API returns a context overflow error:

1. All current messages are summarized and written to memory
2. Aggressive trimming is applied (tool results limited to 10K chars, user text to 10K, max 5 turns)
3. If still overflowing, the entire conversation context is cleared

### 5. Manual Compaction

Besides the automatic strategies above, you can compact context on demand with the `/compact` command. It reuses the same logic as automatic trimming — older turns are summarized by the LLM and injected into the retained context, while the most recent turns are kept intact. Unlike auto-trim, it runs immediately regardless of current token usage, which is handy for freeing context before a long task.

## Session Persistence

Conversation messages are persisted to a local database, automatically restored after service restart. Restore strategy:

* Restores the most recent **`max(3, max_context_turns / 6)`** turns
* Only retains each turn's **user text and Agent final reply**, not intermediate tool call chains
* Sessions older than **30 days** are automatically cleaned up

## Commands

Use these commands in chat to manage context:

| Command | Description |
| - | - |
| `/context` | View current context statistics (message count, role distribution, total characters) |
| `/clear` | Clear current session context (`/context clear` still works as an alias) |
| `/compact` | Summarize older turns to free up context, keeping recent turns intact |
| `/config agent_max_context_tokens 80000` | Adjust context token budget |
| `/config agent_max_context_turns 30` | Adjust context turn limit |

<Tip>
  After clearing context, the Agent "forgets" previous conversation content. Content that was already written to long-term memory can still be retrieved via memory search.
</Tip>


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