The user-visible /compress banner and the post-compression last_prompt_tokens
writeback both counted only the raw message transcript (chars/4). With a 15KB
system prompt and 30 tool schemas (~26KB), a 4-message transcript that looks
like ~45 tokens to the transcript-only estimator is really ~10.5K tokens of
request pressure — a 234x gap.
Two user-facing consequences:
- Banner shows 'Compressing … (~45 tokens)…' while compression is actually
firing on 10K+ tokens of real pressure, confusing users about why
compression triggered (reported by @codecovenant on X; #6217).
- Post-compression last_prompt_tokens writeback omits tool schemas, so the
next should_compress() check compares real usage against a stale
underestimate — compression triggers late, potentially past the model's
context limit on small-context models (#14695).
Swap estimate_messages_tokens_rough() for estimate_request_tokens_rough()
at every user-visible banner and at the post-compression writeback.
estimate_request_tokens_rough() already existed for exactly this purpose
and includes system prompt + tool schemas.
Touched call sites:
- run_agent.py: post-compression last_prompt_tokens writeback, post-tool
call should_compress() fallback when provider usage is missing
- cli.py: /compress banner + summary
- gateway/run.py: gateway /compress banner + summary
- tui_gateway/server.py: TUI /compress status + summary
- acp_adapter/server.py: ACP /compact before/after
Left intentionally alone:
- Session-hygiene fallback and the 'no agent' /status path in gateway/run.py
— no agent instance is in scope to query for system prompt/tools, and the
existing 30-50% overestimate wobble on hygiene is safety-accepted.
- Verbose-mode 'Request size' logging — informational only, already counts
system prompt via api_messages[0].
Also relabels the feedback line from 'Rough transcript estimate' to
'Approx request size' so the metric label matches what it actually measures.
Credits: diagnoses from @devilardis (#14695) and @Jackten (#6217);
user report @codecovenant on X (2026-04-30).
Closes#14695Closes#6217
A misconfigured auxiliary.compression.model is a user-fixable problem that silent recovery would hide. The previous retry-on-main logic transparently swallowed aux-model failures whenever the fallback succeeded, leaving the user's broken config in place and racking up future failures.
Track the aux-model failure on the compressor alongside the existing fallback-placeholder fields:
- _last_aux_model_failure_model: str | None
- _last_aux_model_failure_error: str | None
Both are set at the moment the aux model errors (captured before summary_model is cleared for retry), regardless of whether the retry succeeds. Cleared at compress() start and on on_session_reset() so a clean run doesn't leak stale warnings.
Surface at three places:
- gateway hygiene auto-compress: ℹ note to the platform adapter (thread_id preserved)
- gateway /compress command: ℹ line appended to the reply
- CLI via _emit_warning: deduped on (model, error) so repeat compactions don't spam
Distinct from the existing ⚠️ dropped-turns warning — different severity, different emoji, explicit 'context is intact' reassurance.
PR #16333 added a warning to the manual /compress reply when the
auxiliary summariser fails and the static fallback placeholder is
used, but only the gateway-hygiene path had a test
(test_session_hygiene_warns_user_when_summary_generation_fails).
The /compress branch in _handle_compress_command was uncovered.
New test test_compress_command_appends_warning_when_summary_generation_fails
mocks the compressor's _last_summary_fallback_used /
_last_summary_dropped_count / _last_summary_error fields and
verifies the /compress reply contains the ⚠️ marker, the underlying
error string, the dropped message count, and the 'historical
message(s) were removed' wording — i.e. the same contract the
hygiene-path test enforces.
Manual /compress crashed with 'LCMEngine' object has no attribute
'_align_boundary_forward' when any context-engine plugin was active.
The gateway handler reached into _align_boundary_forward and
_find_tail_cut_by_tokens on tmp_agent.context_compressor, but those
are ContextCompressor-specific — not part of the generic ContextEngine
ABC — so every plugin engine (LCM, etc.) raised AttributeError.
- Add optional has_content_to_compress(messages) to ContextEngine ABC
with a safe default of True (always attempt).
- Override it in the built-in ContextCompressor using the existing
private helpers — preserves exact prior behavior for 'compressor'.
- Rewrite gateway /compress preflight to call the ABC method, deleting
the private-helper reach-in.
- Add focus_topic to the ABC compress() signature. Make _compress_context
retry without focus_topic on TypeError so older strict-sig plugins
don't crash on manual /compress <focus>.
- Regression test with a fake ContextEngine subclass that only
implements the ABC (mirrors LCM's surface).
Reported by @selfhostedsoul (Discord, Apr 22).
