4 ms·

The context window isn't "crippled". Create a markdown document of your task (or use CLAUDE.md), put it in "plan mode" which allows Claude to use tool calls to

by EMM_386 9mo ago

The context window isn't "crippled". Create a markdown document of your task (or use CLAUDE.md), put it in "plan mode" which allows Claude to use tool calls to ask questions before it generates the plan. When it finishes one part of the plan, have it create a another markdown document - "progress.md" or whatever with the whole plan and what is completed at that point. Type /clear (no more context window), tell Claude to read the two documents. Repeat until even a massive project is complete - with those 2 markdown documents and no context window issues.

troupo 9mo ago
> The context window isn't "crippled". ... Proceeds to explain how it's crippled and all the workarounds you have to do to make it less crippled.
- EMM_386 9mo ago
  > ... Proceeds to explain how it's crippled and all the workarounds you have to do to make it less crippled. No - that's not what I did. You don't need an extra-long context full of irrelevant tokens. Claude doesn't need to see the code it implemented 40 steps ago in a working method from Phase 1 if it is on Phase 3 and not using that method. It doesn't need reasoning traces for things it already "thought" through. This other information is cluttering, not helpful. It is making signal to noise ratio worse. If Claude needs to know something it did in Phase 1 for Phase 4 it will put a note on it in the living markdown document to simply find it again when it needs it.
  - troupo 9mo ago
    Again, you're basically explaining how Claude has a very short limited context and you have to implement multiple workarounds to "prevent cluttering". Aka: try to keep context as small as possible, restart context often, try and feed it only small relevant information. What I very succinctly called "crippled context" despite claims that Opus 4.5 is somehow "next tier". It's all the same techniques we've been using for over a year now.
    - scotty79 9mo ago
      Context is a short term memory. Yours is even more limited and yet somehow you get by.
      - troupo 9mo ago
        I get by because I also have long-term memory, and experience, and I can learn. LLMs have none of that, and every new session is rebuilding the world anew. And even my short-term memory is significantly larger than the at most 50% of the 200k-token context window that Claude has. It runs out of context before my short-term memory is probably not even 1% full, for the same task (and I'm capable of more context-switching in the meantime). And so even the "Opus 4.5 really is at a new tier" runs into the very same limitations all models have been running into since the beginning.
        scotty79 9mo ago
        > LLMs have none of that, and every new session is rebuilding the world anew. For LLMs long term memory is achieved by tooling. Which you discounted in your previous comments. You also overstimate capacity of your short-term memory by few orders of magnitude: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/short-term-memory https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/short-term-me...
        troupo 9mo ago
        > For LLMs long term memory is achieved by tooling. Which you discounted in your previous comments. My specific complaint, which is an observable fact about "Opus 4.5 is next tier": it has the same crippled context that degrades the quality of the model as soon as it fills 50%. EMM_386: no-no-no, it's not crippled. All you have to do is keep track across multiple files, clear out context often, feed very specific information not to overflow context. Me: so... it's crippled, and you need multiple workarounds scotty79: After all it's the same as your own short-term memory, and <some unspecified tooling (I guess those same files)> provide long-term memory for LLMs. Me: Your comparison is invalid because I can go have lunch, and come back to the problem at hand and continue where I left off. "Next tier Opus 4.5" will have to be fed the entire world from scratch after a context clear/compact/in a new session. Unless, of course, you meant to say that "next tier Opus model" only has 15-30 second short term memory, and needs to keep multiple notes around like the guy from Memento. Which... makes it crippled.

by EMM_386 9mo ago

troupo 9mo ago

> The context window isn't "crippled". ... Proceeds to explain how it's crippled and all the workarounds you have to do to make it less crippled.

EMM_386 9mo ago
> ... Proceeds to explain how it's crippled and all the workarounds you have to do to make it less crippled. No - that's not what I did. You don't need an extra-long context full of irrelevant tokens. Claude doesn't need to see the code it implemented 40 steps ago in a working method from Phase 1 if it is on Phase 3 and not using that method. It doesn't need reasoning traces for things it already "thought" through. This other information is cluttering, not helpful. It is making signal to noise ratio worse. If Claude needs to know something it did in Phase 1 for Phase 4 it will put a note on it in the living markdown document to simply find it again when it needs it.
- troupo 9mo ago
  Again, you're basically explaining how Claude has a very short limited context and you have to implement multiple workarounds to "prevent cluttering". Aka: try to keep context as small as possible, restart context often, try and feed it only small relevant information. What I very succinctly called "crippled context" despite claims that Opus 4.5 is somehow "next tier". It's all the same techniques we've been using for over a year now.
  - scotty79 9mo ago
    Context is a short term memory. Yours is even more limited and yet somehow you get by.
    - troupo 9mo ago
      I get by because I also have long-term memory, and experience, and I can learn. LLMs have none of that, and every new session is rebuilding the world anew. And even my short-term memory is significantly larger than the at most 50% of the 200k-token context window that Claude has. It runs out of context before my short-term memory is probably not even 1% full, for the same task (and I'm capable of more context-switching in the meantime). And so even the "Opus 4.5 really is at a new tier" runs into the very same limitations all models have been running into since the beginning.
      - scotty79 9mo ago
        > LLMs have none of that, and every new session is rebuilding the world anew. For LLMs long term memory is achieved by tooling. Which you discounted in your previous comments. You also overstimate capacity of your short-term memory by few orders of magnitude: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/short-term-memory https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/short-term-me...
        troupo 9mo ago
        > For LLMs long term memory is achieved by tooling. Which you discounted in your previous comments. My specific complaint, which is an observable fact about "Opus 4.5 is next tier": it has the same crippled context that degrades the quality of the model as soon as it fills 50%. EMM_386: no-no-no, it's not crippled. All you have to do is keep track across multiple files, clear out context often, feed very specific information not to overflow context. Me: so... it's crippled, and you need multiple workarounds scotty79: After all it's the same as your own short-term memory, and <some unspecified tooling (I guess those same files)> provide long-term memory for LLMs. Me: Your comparison is invalid because I can go have lunch, and come back to the problem at hand and continue where I left off. "Next tier Opus 4.5" will have to be fed the entire world from scratch after a context clear/compact/in a new session. Unless, of course, you meant to say that "next tier Opus model" only has 15-30 second short term memory, and needs to keep multiple notes around like the guy from Memento. Which... makes it crippled.