Smart Context Management

When working with Large Language Models (LLMs), there are limits to how much conversation history they can process at once. Goose provides smart context management features to help you maintain productive sessions even when reaching these limits. Here are the key concepts:

• Context Length: The amount of conversation history the LLM can consider
• Context Limit: The maximum number of tokens the model can process
• Context Management: How Goose handles conversations approaching these limits

Smart Context Management Features

When a conversation reaches the context limit, Goose offers different ways to handle it:

Feature	Description	Best For	Impact
Summarization	Condenses conversation while preserving key points	Long, complex conversations	Maintains most context
Truncation	Removes oldest messages to make room	Simple, linear conversations	Loses old context
Clear	Starts fresh while keeping session active	New direction in conversation	Loses all context

Using Smart Context Management

Goose Desktop

Goose Desktop exclusively uses summarization to manage context, preserving key information while reducing size.

Automatic

When you reach the context limit in Goose Desktop:

1. Goose will automatically start summarizing the conversation to make room.
2. You'll see a message that says "Preparing summary...", followed by "Session summarized."
3. Once complete, you'll have the option to "View or edit summary."
4. You can then continue the session with the summarized context in place.

Manual

You can proactively summarize your conversation before reaching context limits:

1. Click the scroll text icon () in the chat interface
2. Confirm the summarization in the modal
3. View or edit the generated summary if needed

Goose CLI

The CLI offers three context management options: summarize, truncate, or clear your session.

Default Context Strategy

You can configure Goose to automatically handle context limits without prompting by setting the GOOSE_CONTEXT_STRATEGY environment variable:

# Set default strategy (choose one)
export GOOSE_CONTEXT_STRATEGY=summarize  # Automatically summarize (recommended)
export GOOSE_CONTEXT_STRATEGY=truncate   # Automatically remove oldest messages
export GOOSE_CONTEXT_STRATEGY=clear      # Automatically clear session
export GOOSE_CONTEXT_STRATEGY=prompt     # Always prompt user (default)

Default behavior:

• Interactive mode: Prompts user to choose (equivalent to prompt)
• Headless mode (goose run): Automatically summarizes (equivalent to summarize)

Automatic

When you hit the context limit, the behavior depends on your configuration:

With default settings (no GOOSE_CONTEXT_STRATEGY set), you'll see this prompt to choose a management option:

◇  The model's context length is maxed out. You will need to reduce the # msgs. Do you want to?
│  ○ Clear Session   
│  ○ Truncate Message
│  ● Summarize Session

final_summary: [A summary of your conversation will appear here]

Context maxed out
--------------------------------------------------
Goose summarized messages for you.

With GOOSE_CONTEXT_STRATEGY configured, Goose will automatically apply your chosen strategy:

# Example with GOOSE_CONTEXT_STRATEGY=summarize
Context maxed out - automatically summarized messages.
--------------------------------------------------
Goose automatically summarized messages for you.

# Example with GOOSE_CONTEXT_STRATEGY=truncate
Context maxed out - automatically truncated messages.
--------------------------------------------------
Goose tried its best to truncate messages for you.

# Example with GOOSE_CONTEXT_STRATEGY=clear
Context maxed out - automatically cleared session.
--------------------------------------------------

Manual

To proactively trigger summarization before reaching context limits, use the /summarize command:

( O)> /summarize
◇  Are you sure you want to summarize this conversation? This will condense the message history.
│  Yes 
│
Summarizing conversation...
Conversation has been summarized.
Key information has been preserved while reducing context length.

Token usage

After sending your first message, Goose Desktop and Goose CLI display token usage.

Goose Desktop

The Desktop displays a colored circle next to the model name at the bottom of the session window. The color provides a visual indicator of your token usage for the session.

• Green: Normal usage - Plenty of context space available
• Orange: Warning state - Approaching limit (80% of capacity)
• Red: Error state - Context limit reached

Hover over this circle to display:

• The number of tokens used
• The percentage of available tokens used
• The total available tokens
• A progress bar showing your current token usage

Goose CLI

The CLI displays a context label above each command prompt, showing:

• A visual indicator using dots (●○) and colors to represent your token usage:
  • Green: Below 50% usage
  • Yellow: Between 50-85% usage
  • Red: Above 85% usage
• Usage percentage
• Current token count and context limit