Claude/Cowork merge appears to break compaction: only summary kept, zero recent turns
Cringe_Panda · reddit · 2026-10-12
A Reddit user reports that since the Claude/Cowork merge (Oct 8–9), long-running conversation compaction now wipes all turns, including the most recent exchange, leaving only a text summary.
- Session log shows context dropping from 835,546 tokens to 9,653 at compaction — roughly the size of the summary alone
- Support (Fin) said documented behavior should keep recent turns intact, contradicting what the user sees
- Stepping away 20–30 minutes triggers session rebuild: files survive but it's a fresh machine each time
- Canary-phrase tests show Project Instruction edits only apply on a new session, not the next message; editing an earlier message once seemed to undo a compaction and restore the full window (undocumented)
The real loss is texture — exact wording, dates, running context — forcing constant re-explanations. The user maintains manual "residue" files in project sources as a workaround and is asking whether others see the same, having filed a report with Anthropic.
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