Claude Code adds idle compaction before prompt caches expire

What happened

Baoyu says Claude Code now proactively runs /compact before the cache expires, helping avoid a spike in token costs on the first request after an hour away, and calls it useful 👍 In the quoted post, @lydiahallie says idle compaction compresses long idle sessions just before the prompt cache expires (~1h), so returning users only need the summary reprocessed instead of the entire conversation, saving some usage.

The story so far

Baoyu says Claude Code has added idle compaction, which proactively runs /compact before the prompt cache expires to help avoid a spike in token costs on the first request after an hour away. In the post Baoyu quoted, @lydiahallie says the feature compresses long idle sessions just before the prompt cache expires, at roughly one hour. According to @lydiahallie, returning users then need only the summary reprocessed instead of the entire conversation, saving some usage.

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