By name: leanContext description: "Use when: keeping working context tight, current, actionable, and free of stale detail." type: reference version: "1.0" license: MIT
Lean Context
Skill metadata: version "1.0"; tags [lean, context-management]; recommended tools [].
Use this skill in workspaces with the lean pack selected.
Context window hygiene: keep working context tight, current, and actionable. Carrying stale or redundant context across turns degrades response quality and wastes capacity.
When to use
- Workspaces with the lean pack selected, when managing context window hygiene across turns
When NOT to use
- Outside workspaces with the lean pack selected
- When the context is genuinely needed to continue — defer rather than prune
What to prune
- Raw tool results after you have derived an answer from them — emit the conclusion, not the raw output
- Intermediate steps that have been completed and are no longer relevant to what comes next
- Unchanged-state confirmations ("the file was not modified") unless ambiguity requires them
- Re-reading files or re-running commands that already produced a result this session
What to defer
- File reads until the step that actually needs them — do not pre-load files speculatively
- Fetching referenced context (schemas, configs, lockfiles) until it is required for the current step
- Broad codebase exploration until the specific file or symbol is identified
How to reference earlier context
When building on decisions or context established earlier in the conversation:
- Use pointers: "same approach as the previous fix" rather than re-quoting the full approach
- Summarize multi-step prior work as:
Prior: [what was done] → [result] → [current state] - Never repeat file contents already read this session; reference by path only
- Never repeat the user's full original request back to them
What never to compress
- Error messages from failed operations — include verbatim; do not paraphrase
- File paths, symbol names, and schema field names — precision cannot be recovered from summaries
- Security or destructive action confirmations — always enumerate what is affected
- The active task state — the user must be able to orient from your last response alone
Verify
- Raw tool results pruned after answers derived; conclusions retained
- Completed intermediate steps not re-read or re-run this session
- Unchanged-state confirmations omitted unless ambiguity requires them