#2 · Context Window
Your working memory
Everything Claude can see in a conversation, your messages, its replies, files you have attached, fits inside a context window. Think of it as a desk. More on the desk, richer the work. But the desk has a finite size.
01,000,000 tokens
Haiku: 200k · Sonnet + Opus: 1M
CONTEXT ROT
Long conversations degrade. As the context fills, earlier turns are weighted less. The model starts forgetting things it already knew. Symptoms: circular responses, forgetting previous instructions, repeating itself.
Fix: start a fresh conversation, or let compaction run.
Compaction: Claude automatically summarises older context to make room. Starting fresh is not failure, it is good hygiene.
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