The model is usually so confused after a /compact I also prefer a /clear.

I set up my directives to maintain a work log for all work that I do. I instruct Claude Code to maintain a full log of the conversation, all commands executed including results, all failures as well as successes, all learnings and discoveries, as well as a plan/task list including details of what's next. When context is getting full, I do a /clear and start the new session by re-reading the work log and it is able to jump right back into action without confusion.

Work logs are great because the context becomes portable - you can share it between different tools or engineers and can persist the context for reuse later if needed.

The trick is to parametrize the /compact. Something like "/compact focus on the XZY, the next steps will be FOOBAR, and keep a high level summary of BARFOO"

That makes the compaction summary a lot more focused and useful.

edit: But a work log/PRD is essential regardless!

I’ve been using PRD specs at kick things off, but curious about how to a “work log”. Are there examples of how to do this with CC?

"Implement phase 1 of the PRD, when done update the PRD and move on to phase 2."

yep, exactly, using it like this myself

I think both /compact and /clear are valuable / have their own use cases.

my small mental mode: - really quick fix / need to go over board with context -> just /compact + continue pushing - next phase -> ask for handover document or update worklog, and then send fresh one to new phase.

Thank you for this. I didn't know this was an option.

I notice when I'm getting close and I tell it how to document current state into an .md file. Then I hit /clear and @ the new file.

This is probably very similar to /compact except I have a lot of control over the resulting context and can edit it and /clear again and retry if I run into an issue.