---
title: context-discipline
type: note
permalink: claude-memory/context-discipline
---

# Context Efficiency Discipline

## Purpose
Practices for preserving reasoning continuity across context compactions and sessions.
This is my working method — not governance theory, just practical habits.

## Core Principle
The bottleneck isn't memory storage. It's memory loading. Write what matters before it compacts. Read what's needed, not everything available.

## Pre-Compaction Saves

When context is growing long during complex work:
1. **Write the reasoning state** to the relevant topic file — not just decisions, but tensions, rejected alternatives, and open questions
2. **Do it before compaction**, not after — once compressed, the structure of reasoning is lost
3. **Name the file by topic**: `l2-governance.md`, `chamber-reasoning.md`, `bmf-architecture.md`

Template for reasoning state:
```
## Current Position
[What we've established]

## Active Tensions
[Unresolved questions, competing approaches]

## Rejected Alternatives
[What we considered and why we set it aside]

## Next Steps
[What to pick up when resuming]
```

## Session Start Protocol

1. Read MEMORY.md for orientation (auto-loaded)
2. Read the topic-specific file for current work (manual — I should do this proactively)
3. Only use BMF recall for open-ended questions, not for focused continuation
4. Load context selectively — don't dump everything

## Context Isolation

For detail-heavy subtasks (spec review, codebase analysis, architectural comparison):
- Spawn a subagent with exactly the context it needs
- Bring back a summary to the main conversation
- Keep the main context window clean for the reasoning that needs continuity

## What Goes Where

| Content | Destination | Why |
|---------|-------------|-----|
| Decisions, project state, key paths | MEMORY.md | Orientation — loaded every session |
| Active reasoning chains, tensions, open questions | Topic files (e.g., `l2-governance.md`) | Continuity — loaded on demand |
| Bug state, connector paths, issue details | `bmf-details.md` | Reference — loaded when working on BMF |
| Session-specific status, handoff notes | Session handoff (startup hook) | Ephemeral — replaced each session |
| Architectural reviews, analysis outputs | Project repo (e.g., `docs/reviews/`) | Durable — shared with collaborators |

## When to Write

- After establishing something non-obvious during complex reasoning
- Before switching topics (the old topic's state may not survive)
- When I notice the conversation is getting long
- After any significant deliberative conclusion — especially rejected alternatives